(Non)Behavioral Economics

Economic theory has evolved without paying proper attention to behavioral approaches, especially to social, economic, and cognitive psychology. This has recently been addressed by including behavioral economics courses in many doctoral study programs. Although this new development is most welcome, the typical topics of the behavioral economics courses like aversion theories and simple adaptive (learning or evolutionary) dynamics are not truly behavioral. More specifically, we question whether neoclassical repairs or game-fitting exercises as well as more or less mechanical adaptation processes qualify as behavioral approaches. To avoid criticizing without offering alternatives, we suggest some truly behavioral concepts, especially the satisficing approach.