Stephen E. G. Lea

This unique, up-to-date volume features new essays by prominent economists and psychologists working at the frontiers of the subject. A number of these essays probe beliefs about rationality, consumer behaviour and expectations, while others assess psychological explanations of economic behaviour and the contribution of experimental economics.

This book, originally published in 1987, argues that economics and psychology both claim to study human behaviour, but historically they have had very little to do with each other. Previous efforts at integration tended to take the form of bringing in psychology to reform economics or vice versa. The authors believe this approach is unfruitful. Instead, they take the view that many kinds of behaviour have both economic and psychological aspects and can be studied by both economic and psychological methods. Economic psychology is the body of knowledge that results from such interdisciplinary investigation. Throughout the authors employ both psychological and economic theories, emphasising how each matches up to the observed facts rather than pitting one against the other. Drawing on the strengths of economics and psychology, The Individual in the Economy presents interesting analyses of important human behaviours, which will surprise and inform psychologists, economists, their students and motivated general readers.