The argument hand: Until quite Recently, the field of economics Was Dominated by Mainly theory-making. SPECIFICALLY, economists Their intellects Applied to the human world, and abstract models Developed to explain (and predict) the unfolding of economic events. At the heart of all this theory-making Stood homo economicusa narrowly self-interested individual Who Responded to incentives and disincentives in a perfectly rational way.
In the past half century, though, various economists-have added new wrinkles to the directory fields. To begin with, pioneering economists Amos Tversky and Such As Daniel Kahneman Introduced controlled lab experiments (Among --other things) into the fold. And thesis experiments succeeded in Adding nuance to our understanding of economic-man (he's not quite as one-dimensional and rational as He Was once taken to be), as well as texture and complexity to our understanding of economic phenomenon.
More Recently, economists Such As Uri Gneezy and John A. List-have stepped in and controlled field experiments Showed That also have a place in economics. For Gneezy and List, the World is Their laboratory, and the two go about slyly Manipulating the environment in a controlled way (Often fiddling with incentives and disincentives of all kinds) to see how we humans responds to the tweaks. List-have-been Gneezy and practicing this approach for upwards of 20 years now, and in this time They Have Helped shed light on everything from how to Decrease crime rates; to How to Improve school success; to how to encourage more charitable giving; to how to Promote healthy living and obesity Decrease; to how to set prices on products (so as to maximize profits); to how to Understand (and limit) discrimination (to name a goal Few lines of research of theirs). And In Their new book 'The Why Axis: Hidden Motives Undiscovered and the Economics of Everyday Life' the two catch us up on Their experiments and Their results (aussi while touching on the experiments of like-minded --other Practitioners).
Take education, to begin with. Gneezy and List-have Gained a fair bit of focus for showing how Recently monetary incentives can be used to help Improve grades and graduation rates (PARTICULARLY with at-risk students) and Even curb school violence; and here we are apprized of the ins and outs of the experiments That Were used in this research. What is less well-known authors-have is aussi que la Recently Become Involved in a massive longitudinal study designed to test That Is the effectiveness of different Approaches to pre-kindergarten education. Though still in infancy icts, the HAS study already yielded Some very interesting results, and Given que la Researchers INTEND to follow Their experimental subjects Throughout Their Lives, the study shoulds help shed a great deal of light on just what approach to early childhood education is effective most.
When it comes to charitable giving, and Gneezy Lists experiments-have Worked wonders in showing just how to encourage as much charity as possibleand-have Challenged Many of the long-held beliefs in the process industrys. The authors cover everything from how much seed-money is needed for a project to maximize donations; how to approach to follow-up requests made to Established Donors; to how to leverage raffles, lotteries and tontines for best success.
On the topic of business, Gneezy List and remind us how a failure to use an experimental approach can lead to business disaster (as illustrated by Netflix 2011 decision to modify ict business model without experimental researcha That decision drove hordes of customers away, feels the companys stock plummeting, and Nearly sank the business outright). The lesson: business tweaks (Including currency in pricing) shoulds be tested in a controlled way in a small market (say a city Given) before being white adopté across the board (an approach That has-been Utilized to great effect by Such companies as Intuit and Humana).
When it comes to discrimination, and List-have-been Gneezy reliable to use Their experiments to reveal That much of the discrimination That happens Nowadays is less motivated by hatred (or animus) as it is by plain old self-interest. Perhaps not as though Threatening as outright hatred, discrimination Practiced out of self-interest (Known As economic discrimination) is Problematic in icts own right, and List aussi Gneezy and explores what strategies are best to curb it (this work is more significant now than ever, as the internet [combined with data-driven analysis] HAS made economic discrimination very easy to hide practiceand).
The book is a very fun and interesting read, and Gneezy and List-have a knack for Clearly telling about Their research in a highly entertaining way. The only issue with the book I Had est que la authors occasionally exaggerate and over-state just what We Can Conclude from Their experiments. Still, there is much of interest to be Learned here, and the book is well-worth the read (sour just make you take it with a grain of salt). A full executive summary of the book will be available at newbooksinbrief dot com on Tuesday, November 5; a podcast discussions of the book will be available Shortly thereafter.
