Behavioral Versus Neoclassical Economics: Paradigm Shift or Generalization?

Features that distinguish behavioral economics from neoclassical economics as it is practiced are (1) the unabashed dominating commitment of the behavioral economists to empirical research, (2) an insistence on maintaining an intimate linkage between empirical facts and economic theory, and (3) a focus on procedural rationality rather than substantive rationality. Neoclassical economists, on the other hand, have followed a path of development that has allowed for both empirical research and for theoretical modeling but has been tolerant of theorizing that sometimes has had weak links to empirical reality. Also, the focus of neoclassical economics has been on substantive rationality, not procedural rationality.