Really good deep dive. A lot of things are attributed to preferences when in reality it was probably something different. The work-from-home revolution comes to mind (often erroneously attributed to a change in preferences)
This is brilliant - thank you. I've been thinking much the same recently. It feels like this is a really key area of discussion as behavioural economics becomes more mainstream: if we abandon a framework of rationality and fixed preferences (or a clear mechanism for preference formation), our models of behaviour might become more accurate, but they also move more towards being entirely ad hoc. Thanks for articulating this so clearly.
Hey, great read as always. This really builds on your Becker essay. Makes me tink about those 'black box' explanations in other fields too.
Really good deep dive. A lot of things are attributed to preferences when in reality it was probably something different. The work-from-home revolution comes to mind (often erroneously attributed to a change in preferences)
This is brilliant - thank you. I've been thinking much the same recently. It feels like this is a really key area of discussion as behavioural economics becomes more mainstream: if we abandon a framework of rationality and fixed preferences (or a clear mechanism for preference formation), our models of behaviour might become more accurate, but they also move more towards being entirely ad hoc. Thanks for articulating this so clearly.