0521856655 cambridge university press the cambridge handbook of psychology and economic behaviour jun 2008

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The Cambridge Handbook of
Psychology and Economic Behaviour
Psychologists have been observing and interpreting economic behaviour for at least fifty years, and the last decade, in particular, has
seen an escalated interest in the interface between psychology and
economics. The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Economic
Behaviour is a valuable reference resource dedicated to improving
our understanding of the economic mind and economic behaviour.
Employing empirical methods – including laboratory experiments,
field experiments, observations, questionnaires and interviews – the
Handbook covers aspects of theory and method, financial and consumer behaviour, the environment and biological perspectives. With
contributions from distinguished scholars from a variety of countries
and backgrounds, the Handbook is an important step forward in the
improvement of communications between the disciplines of psychology and economics. It will appeal to academic researchers and graduates in economic psychology and behavioural economics.
Alan Lewis is Professor of Economic Psychology in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bath. He is a former editor
of the Journal of Economic Psychology and his books include Morals,
Markets and Money: Ethical, Green and Socially Responsible Investing (2002) and The New Economic Mind: The Social Psychology
of Economic Behaviour (with Paul Webley and Adrian Furnham,
1995).



The Cambridge Handbook of

Psychology and Economic
Behaviour

Edited by

ALAN LEWIS


CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo
Cambridge University Press
The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK
Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York
www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521856652
© Cambridge University Press 2008
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of
relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place
without the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published in print format 2008

ISBN-13 978-0-511-39346-4

eBook (EBL)

ISBN-13

hardback

978-0-521-85665-2

Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls

for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.


This book is first and foremost dedicated to my wife Sandie Lewis.
I would also like to dedicate it to all my past, current and future
economic psychology students.



Contents

List of figures
List of tables
Notes on the contributors

page ix
xiii
xv

Part I Introduction, theory and method
1. Introduction

3

Alan Lewis
2. Theory and method in economics and psychology

9

Denis Hilton
Part II Finance
3. The economic psychology of the stock market

39

Karl-Erik W¨arneryd
4. Stock prices: insights from behavioral finance

64

Werner F. M. De Bondt
5. Inter-temporal choice and self-control: saving and borrowing

105

Paul Webley and Ellen K. Nyhus
6. Financial decisions in the household

132

Carole Burgoyne and Erich Kirchler
7. Corporate social responsibility: the case of long-term and
responsible investment

155

Danyelle Guyatt
Part III Consumer behaviour in the private sector
8. Consumption and identity

181

Russell Belk
9. Wealth, consumption and happiness

199

Aaron Ahuvia

vii


viii

Contents

10. Comparing models of consumer behaviour

227

Gerrit Antonides
Part IV Consumer behaviour in the public sector
11. Lay perceptions of government economic activity

255

Simon Kemp
12. How big should government be?

281

John G. Cullis and Philip R. Jones
13. Integrating explanations of tax evasion and avoidance

304

Valerie Braithwaite and Michael Wenzel
Part V Environment
14. Sustainable consumption and lifestyle change

335

Tim Jackson
15. Environmentally significant behavior in the home

363

Paul C. Stern
16. Economic and psychological determinants of car ownership
and use

383

Tommy G¨arling and Peter Loukopoulos
17. Environmental morale and motivation

406

Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer

18. Contingent valuation as a research method:
environmental values and human behaviour

429

Clive L. Spash
Part VI Biological perspectives
19. Neuroeconomics: what neuroscience can
learn from economics

457

Terry Lohrenz and P. Read Montague
20. Evolutionary economics and psychology

493

Ulrich Witt
21. Evolutionary psychology and economic psychology

512

Stephen E. G. Lea

Index

527


Figures

2.1 Indifference curves for theory preferences in economists
and psychologists. Reprinted from European Economic
Review, 46, Rabin, M. ‘A perspective on psychology and
economics’, pp. 657–85, Copyright 2002, with
permission from Elsevier
5.1 Preferences under constant discount rates: stable
preferences. Reprinted from Ainslie, G. Picoeconomics:
The Strategic Interaction of Successive Motivational
States within the Person, Copyright 1992, with
permission from Cambridge University Press
5.2 Preferences when discount rate changes as a function of
time: preference reversal. Reprinted from Ainslie, G.
Picoeconomics: The Strategic Interaction of Successive
Motivational States within the Person, Copyright 1992,
with permission from Cambridge University Press
5.3 Savings motives in the UK
9.1 Income and happiness in the US, 1972–4. Reprinted
from the National Opinion Research Center’s General
Social Survey, with permission
12.1 Gaining from the ‘nanny state’
12.2 Multiple happiness equilibria
13.1 The wheel of social alignment of taxpayers
14.1 A livelihoods framework: assets, strategies and
outcomes. Redrawn from Chambers, R. and Conway, G.
Sustainable rural livelihoods: practical concepts for the
21st century. IDS discussion paper 296, 1992, with
permission from the Institute of Development Studies
14.2 UK GDP vs. life-satisfaction 1973–2002. Data on GDP
from UK National Accounts. Data on life-satisfaction

from Veenhoven, R. World database of happiness:
www2.eur.nl/fsw/research/happiness
14.3 The social-symbolic project of identity formation.
Adapted by the author from Elliott, R. and

page 13

110

110
120

201
284
299
315

341

344

ix


x

List of figures

14.4

14.5

15.1

16.1
16.2

16.3
19.1
19.2

19.3

Wattanasuwan, K. 1998. ‘Brands as resources for the
symbolic construction of identity’, International Journal
of Advertising 172, pp. 131–45
Lifestyles and social practices. Adapted from
Environmental Politics, 9(1), Spaargaren, G. and van
Vliet, B. ‘Lifestyles, consumption and the environment:
the ecological modernization of domestic consumption’,
pp. 50–77, Copyright 2000, with permission from
Taylor & Francis Ltd, www.informaworld.com
A new model for behaviour change policy. Redrawn
from Securing the Future: Delivering UK Sustainable
Development Strategy – Defra 2005 C Crown copyright,
material is reproduced with the permission of the
Controller of HMSO and Queen’s Printer for Scotland
A schematic representation of variables in the
value–belief–norm theory of environmentalism.
Reprinted from Stern, P. “Toward a coherent theory of

environmentally significant behavior,” Journal of Social
Issues, 56, p. 412, Copyright 2000, with permission from
Blackwell Publishing
Determinants of travel
Theoretical framework. Adapted from Transport Policy,
9, G¨arling, T. et al. ‘A conceptual analysis of the impact
of travel demand management on private car use’,
pp. 59–70, Copyright 2002, with permission from
Elsevier
Factors assumed to affect political feasibility
Diagram of forces and influences forging
neuroeconomics
Area of VMPFC whose activity scales linearly with
subjects’ preference for Coke as revealed in an
anonymous taste test. Reprinted from Neuron 44,
McClure, S. M., Li, J., Tomlin, D., Cypert, K. S.,
Montague, L. S., Montague, P. R., “Neural correlates of
behavioral preference for culturally familiar drinks,”
Copyright 2004, pp. 379–87, with permission from
Elsevier
Neural activity correlating with expected value and
prediction error. From Yacubian, J., Gl¨ascher, J.,
Schroeder, K., Sommer, T., Braus, D. F., and B¨uchel, C.
(2006). Dissociable systems for gain- and loss-related
value predictions and error of prediction in the human

348

352

356

376
387

393
397
459

460


List of figures

19.4

19.5

19.6

19.7

19.8

19.9

19.10

brain. Reproduced from Journal of Neuroscience 26, pp.
9530–7 Copyright 2006 by the Society for Neuroscience

Neural activity related to different discounting systems.
From McClure, S. M., Laibson, D., Loewenstein, G.,
Cohen, J. D. (2004). “Separate neural systems value
immediate and delayed monetary awards,” Science 306,
pp. 503–7. Reprinted with permission from AAAS
fMRI evidence for TD-error signal in ventral striatum.
Reprinted from Neuron 38, McClure et al., “Temporal
prediction errors in a passive learning task activate
human striatum,” pp. 339–46, Copyright 2003, with
permission from Elsevier; and Neuron 38, O’Doherty
et al., “Temporal difference models and reward-related
learning in the human brain,” Copyright 2003,
pp. 329–37, with permission from Elsevier
Dissociable roles for dorsal and ventral striatum in an
instrumental conditioning task. From O’Doherty, J. P.,
Dayan, P., Schultz, J., Deichmann, R., Friston, K., Dolan,
R. (2004). “Dissociable roles of dorsal and ventral
striatum in instrumental conditioning,” Science 304,
pp. 452–4. Reprinted with permission from AAAS
Regressions of firing rate of dopamine neurons versus
reward history. Reprinted from Neuron 47, Bayer, H. M.,
and Glimcher, P. W., “Midbrain dopamine signals encode
a quantitative reward prediction error signal,” Copyright
2005, pp. 129–41, with permission from Elsevier
Brain regions active in exploratory trials as determined
by computational model of behavior. Reprinted by
permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd: Nature 441,
pp. 876–9. Daw, N. D., O’Doherty, J. P., Dayan, P.,
Seymour, B., and Dolan, R. J., “Cortical substrates for
exploratory decisions in humans,” copyright 2006

Results from the repeated trust game. From King-Casas,
B., Tomlin, D., Anen, C., Camerer, C. F., Quartz, S. R.,
and Montague, P. R. (2005). “Getting to know you:
reputation and trust in a two-person economic
exchange,” Science 308, pp. 78–83. Reprinted with
permission from AAAS
“Tequila worm” figures of agency map across various
conditions. From Tomlin, D., Kayali, M. A., King-Casas,
B., Anen, C., Camerer, C. F., Quartz, S. R, and Montague,
P. R. (2006), “Agent-specific responses in the cingulate

463

466

467

469

470

473

475

xi


xii

List of figures

19.11

19.12

19.13

19.14
19.15

cortex during economic exchanges,” Science 312, pp.
1047–50. Reprinted with permission from AAAS
Activation in the one-shot ultimatum game. From Sanfey,
A. G., Rilling J. K., Aronson, J. K., Nystrom, L. E., and
Cohen, J. D. (2003), “The neural basis of economic
decision-making in the ultimatum game,” Science 300,
pp. 1755–8. Reprinted with permission from AAAS
Activation in the investor’s brain after unfair trustee
responses. From De Quervain, D. J. F., Fischbacher, U.,
Treyer, V., Schellhammer, M., Schnyder, U., Buck, A.,
and Fehr, E. (2004), “The neural basis of altruistic
punishment,” Science 305, pp. 1254–8. Reprinted with
permission from AAAS
Activation in nucleus accumbens for the unfair–fair
contrast in the painful condition for males only.
Reprinted by permission from Macmillan Publishers Ltd:
Nature, Singer et al., “Empathetic neural responses are
modulated by the perceived fairness of others,” 439,
pp. 466–9, copyright 2006

Coronal slice of MNI single-subject brain used in SPM2,
y = 2.17
Sagittal slice of MNI single-subject brain used in SPM2,
x = −5.25 SNc at x = −6.87

477

478

479

480
485
486


Tables

2.1 Three levels of scientific question and associated
scientific disciplines
6.1 Classification of tactics. From Kirchler, E. et al. 2001.
Conflict and decision making in close relationships.
Reprinted with permission from The Psychology Press, a
member of the Taylor & Francis Group
6.2 Money management at the time of the wedding and
about one year later. Reprinted from Journal of
Economic Psychology, 28(2), Burgoyne, C. et al.,
‘Money management systems in early marriage: factors
influencing change and stability’, pp. 214–28, Copyright
2007, with permission from Elsevier

6.3a Ownership and financial systems at time 1
6.3b Ownership and financial systems time 2
7.1 Corporate equity holders by sector, end of 2000
(percentage of total). Reprinted from Davis, E. P.
Institutional investors, corporate governance and the
performance of the corporate sector, working paper: The
Pensions Institute, Birkbeck College, London, Copyright
2002, with permission
7.2 Size of the SRI investment market. Reprinted from
Sparkes, R. ‘Ethical investment: whose ethics, which
investment?’ Business Ethics: A European Review,
10(3), pp. 194–205, Copyright 2001, with permission
from Blackwell Publishing
10.1 Overview of consumer models and their applications
11.1 Percentage of respondents favouring less, the same or
more expenditure on six categories of US public
spending. Reprinted from Public Choice, 45(2), 1985,
pp. 139–53, ‘Interrelationships among public spending
preferences: a micro analysis’, Ferris, J. M., with kind
permission from Springer Science and Business Media
12.1 Contrasting views of theory and individuals

page 15

139

144
145
145

160

166
229

263
285
xiii


xiv

List of tables

12.2 Assumptive worlds
12.3 Seldon’s classification of ‘UK government’. After
Seldon, A. (1977)
12.4 Paths to happiness
12.5 Table of social expenditure as a percentage of GDP2001.
Reprinted from OECD Factbook, Copyright OECD, 2005
12.6 Size of state welfare and happiness in a cross-section of
countries in 1990. Adapted from Veenhoven, R. (2000)
15.1 Variables influencing environmentally significant
behaviors
15.2 A causal model of environmentally relevant behavior.
Adapted from Stern, P. and Oskamp, S. 1987. Managing
scarce environmental resources. Vol. II, pp. 1043–88. In
D. Stokols (ed.), Handbook of Environmental
Psychology. Reprinted with permission from John Wiley
& Sons, Ltd

16.1 Proposed system of classifying travel demand
management (TDM) measures

288
292
295
297
298
374

377
391


Notes on the contributors

Aaron Ahuvia is an Associate Professor of Marketing at the University of
Michigan-Dearborn School of Management. Professor Ahuvia served as VicePresident for Academic Affairs for the International Society for Quality of Life
Studies, is a former Associate Editor for the Journal of Economic Psychology, and is the 2007 winner of the University of Michigan-Dearborn Annual
Research Award. His research looks at the nature of contemporary consumer
culture with a special focus on how people can build successful lives within
this environment.
Gerrit Antonides is Professor of Economics of Consumers and Households
at Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He is (co-)editor of the Journal of
Economic Psychology. His research topics are behavioural economics, financial decision making and consumer behaviour.
Russell Belk is Kraft Foods Canada Chair in Marketing at York University. He
is past president of several professional associations and a fellow in the Association for Consumer Research. His work involves the meanings of possessions,
collecting, gift giving and materialism, and is often cultural, visual, qualitative and interpretive. He has authored or edited a number of journal articles
and books including Handbook of Qualitative Research Methods in Marketing
(2006) and Consumer Culture Theory (with John Sherry Jr, forthcoming). He

is also editor of Research in Consumer Behavior.
Valerie Braithwaite is Head of the Regulatory Institutions Network (RegNet)
Program in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National
University (ANU), and former Director of the Centre for Tax System Integrity
at the ANU. She is editor of Taxing Democracy: Understanding Tax Avoidance
and Evasion (2003) and of a special issue on responsive regulation and taxation
in the journal Law and Policy. She is the author of a forthcoming research
monograph, Defiance in Taxation and Governance.
Carole Burgoyne is an economic psychologist at the University of Exeter,
UK. Her main research interests include the psychology of money, the material aspects of intimate relationships and gift giving. She is a co-author of
xv


xvi

Notes on the contributors

The Economic Psychology of Everyday Life (2001) and is currently investigating the financial and legal aspects of non-married heterosexual cohabitation.
John G. Cullis is Reader in Economics at the Department of Economics and
International Development, University of Bath. Most of his research has
been concerned with the application of microeconomic theory to non-market
contexts. His work has appeared in a number of leading academic journals
including the Journal of Economic Psychology and the Journal of Socio Economics. He is co-author (with Philip Jones) of Micro-economics and the Public
Economy: A Defence of Leviathan (1987).
Werner F. M. De Bondt is Richard H. Driehaus Professor in Behavioral
Finance at DePaul University, Chicago. He has published widely in economics
and finance journals including the American Economic Review and the Journal
of Finance. He is editor of the Journal of Behavioral Finance.
Bruno S. Frey is Professor of Economics at the University of Zurich. He
received an honorary doctorate in economics from the Universities of St Gallen

(Switzerland, 1998) and G¨oteborg (Sweden, 1998). He is the author of numerous articles in professional journals and books, including Not Just for the
Money (1997), Economics as a Science of Human Behaviour (1999), Arts
and Economics (2000), Inspiring Economics (2001), Successful Management
by Motivation (with Margit Osterloh, 2001), Happiness and Economics (with
Alois Stutzer, 2002) and Dealing with Terrorism – Stick or Carrot? (2004).
Tommy G¨arling is Professor of Psychology at the Department of Psychology,
and an associate of the Center for Consumption Science, G¨oteborg University,
Sweden. He is also an associate of the Center of Excellence in Public Transport
Services (SAMOT), Karlstad University, Sweden, and the Ume˚a School of
Business, Ume˚a University, Sweden. He has published extensively in leading
transportation journals such as Transportation Research and Transportation
and is the editor or co-editor of eight books including, most recently, Threats
from Car Traffic to Urban Life Quality (2007).
Danyelle Guyatt holds a PhD in Economic Psychology and is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Bath. Her research has focused on institutional investor
behaviour and the impediments to long-term responsible investing. She is currently undertaking a research project for the Rotman International Centre of
Pension Management on collaboration amongst pension funds and the evolution of conventions.
Denis Hilton is Professor of Social Psychology at the University of ToulouseII. His research interests centre on social cognition, reasoning, judgement


Notes on the contributors

and decision-making, and experimental economics. During 2001–3 he was a
CNRS research fellow in the Department of Economics at the University of
Toulouse-I.
Tim Jackson is Professor of Sustainable Development at the University of
Surrey, England and Director of the ESRC Research Group on Lifestyles,
Values and Environment. He sits on the UK Sustainable Development Commission and was academic representative on the UK Sustainable Consumption
Round Table. He is editor of the Earthscan Reader on Sustainable Consumption (2006).
Philip R. Jones is Professor of Economics at the Department of Economics
and International Development, University of Bath. He has published extensively on public finance and public choice in leading economics and political

science journals, e.g. American Economic Review, Economics Journal, Journal
of Public Economics, British Journal of Political Science and Political Studies.
He is co-author (with John Cullis) of Public Finance and Public Choice (2nd
edn, 1998).
Simon Kemp is Professor of Psychology at the University of Canterbury, New
Zealand. He was co-editor of the Journal of Economic Psychology from 2000
to 2005, and has authored or co-authored two books on economic psychology,
most recently Public Goods and Private Wants: A Psychological Approach
to Government Spending (2002). His current research projects include the
psychology of government decision-making and the nature of psychological
measures.
Erich Kirchler is University Professor at the Institute for Restaurant Economics, Education Psychology and Evaluation at the University of Vienna,
Austria. He has published widely, especially in the fields of tax compliance
and household consumption patterns. He is co-author of Conflict and Decision
Making in Close Relationships (2001).
Stephen E. G. Lea is Professor of Psychology at the University of Exeter,
UK. He was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Economic Psychology from
1991 to 1995, and has co-authored or edited a number of books in economic
psychology, including The Individual in the Economy (1987) and The
Economic Psychology of Everyday Life (2001). He has wide research interests
in economic psychology, with a current emphasis on the psychology of money,
poverty and debt. His other research interests include animal cognition and
behavioural ecology, and ways in which different disciplines interact over
common subject matter.

xvii


xviii

Notes on the contributors

Alan Lewis is Professor of Economic Psychology at the University of Bath.
He was editor-in-chief of the Journal of Economic Psychology from 1996
to 2000. He is currently working on two research projects: sustainable and
socially responsible investment, and cultural differences in tax evasion. His
most recent book is Morals, Markets and Money (2002).
Terry Lohrenz is a Research Instructor in the Human Neuroimaging Laboratory, Department of Neuroscience, Baylor College of Medicine in Houston,
Texas. His work focuses on neuroeconomics and neuroimaging.
Peter Loukopoulos is currently a researcher at the Swedish National Road and
Transport Research Institute. He completed his PhD at G¨oteborg University
as a social psychologist specializing in people’s adaptation to travel demand
management measures. His current research examines traffic safety campaigns.
He has published in various transportation and social psychological journals
such as Transportation Research and Journal of Applied Social Psychology.
P. Read Montague is the Brown Foundation Professor of Neuroscience and
Professor of Psychiatry at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas,
where he also directs the Human Neuroimaging Lab, the Center for Theoretical
Neuroscience and the newly formed Computational Psychiatry Unit. He has
been a member of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ, a fellow
at Rockefeller University in New York, and a fellow at the Salk Institute in San
Diego, CA. His work focuses on computational neuroscience, neuroeconomics
and neuroimaging.
Ellen K. Nyhus is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Faculty of
Eonomics at the University of Agder, Norway. She completed her PhD at
the Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, specializing in household saving and borrowing behaviour. Most of her research
concerns household economic decisions such as saving, investments, labour
supply and economic socialization. Her current research focuses on the effect
of psychological variables on wages. She has published in various psychology
journals such as the Journal of Economic Psychology and the British Journal

of Psychology.
Clive L. Spash is an Economics Professor and Science Leader within the Sustainable Ecosystems Division of CSIRO, Canberra, Australia. He is Editor-inChief of Environmental Values, and has over a hundred publications, including
Greenhouse Economics: Value and Ethics (2002) and (with Michael Getzner
and Sigrid Stagl, eds.) Alternatives for Environmental Valuation (2005). He
was Vice-President and then President of the European Society for Ecological
Economics from 1996 to 2006.


Notes on the contributors

Paul C. Stern is director of the Committee on the Human Dimensions of
Global Change at the US National Research Council. He is co-author of Environmental Problems and Human Behavior (2nd edn, 2002) and co-editor of
Understanding Risk: Informing Decisions in a Democratic Society (1996),
among other works. His primary research interests are the human dimensions
of environmental problems, particularly individual and household behaviour
and the development of governance institutions. His co-authored article ‘The
Struggle to Govern the Commons’ won the 2005 Sustainability Science Award
from the Ecological Society of America.
Alois Stutzer is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Basel.
His research interests range from economics and psychology to political economics. He has co-authored the book Happiness and Economics (2002) and
co-edited the volume Economics and Psychology. A Promising New CrossDisciplinary Field (2007) (both with Bruno S. Frey).
Karl-Erik W¨arneryd is Professor Emeritus of Economic Psychology at the
Stockholm School of Economics, Sweden. Most of his research has been
related to consumer behaviour and household financial management. His most
recent books include The Psychology of Saving: A Study on Economic Psychology (1999) and Stock-Market Psychology: How People Value and Trade
Stocks (2001).
Paul Webley is Director and Principal of the School of Oriental and African
Studies and Professor of Economic Psychology at the University of London.
He has co-authored four books on economic psychology, most recently The
Economic Psychology of Everyday Life (2001). His current research focuses

on children’s economic behaviour and tax compliance.
Michael Wenzel is Senior Lecturer at the School of Psychology at Flinders
University, Adelaide, Australia. He is a social psychologist with a particular
interest in justice, social identity, inter-group relations and compliance. A
current research project investigates retributive and restorative responses to
transgressions.
Ulrich Witt is Professor of Economics and Director at the Max Planck Institute
of Economics in Jena, Germany. He has published extensively on evolutionary
economics in general and on economic behaviour from an evolutionary perspective in particular. His most recent book is The Evolving Economy (2003).

xix



PA RT I

Introduction, theory and method



1

Introduction
ALAN LEWIS

I was very pleased to be asked to edit this volume for Cambridge University
Press, not least because I have been in the economic psychology business
for over twenty-five years. A quarter-century of publication of the Journal of
Economic Psychology was notched up in 2005 (Kirchler and Holzl, 2006). It
is a good time to take stock as well as look to the future.

Psychology has become one of the most popular degree subjects in industrialized countries and is continuing to spread its net. Pure and applied forms have
become blurred as the relevance of the subject both theoretically and in everyday life has become apparent. With these developments, it was only a matter
of time before psychologists turned their attention to economic behaviour.
Psychology has been described as a synthetic science and economics as
analytic: psychology has aped the empirical approaches of the natural sciences
while economics has much more in common with mathematics. The synthetic
route requires observation of economic behaviour, the testing of hypotheses and
the construction of generalizations based on those observations. Psychology’s
quest to understand mind and behaviour is now directed in this context to
building an appreciation of the economic mind and economic behaviour.
The contributors to this volume reflect the breadth and depth of this undertaking, covering aspects of theory and method, consumer behaviour, the
environment and, finally, biological perspectives. The contributors are distinguished scholars from the USA, France, Sweden, Norway, the UK, Austria,
the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, Switzerland, Germany and Canada.
The majority of authors have first degrees in psychology or economics but
there are also contributors with backgrounds in finance, management science
and mathematics: all, in their various ways, are committed to the study of
psychology and economics.
The title The Cambridge Handbook of Psychology and Economic Behaviour
was chosen with care. The title is an inclusive one where essays employ a range
of methods: laboratory experiments, field experiments, questionnaire studies,
observations, interviews; the list is a long one. In short, both qualitative and
quantitative methods are deemed acceptable and no one single area of psychology is given precedence. This broader remit is in contrast to handbooks in
behavioural economics (Camerer, Loewenstein and Rabin, 2004) and experimental economics (Kagel and Roth, 1995). Behavioural economics has been
heavily influenced by a single area, namely cognitive psychology, and the
3