INTRODUCTION TO BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS: Economic Policies of the New Thinking in Economics

With the Covid pandemic, the crises in economic thinking identified since the mid-1960ss have come back to focus. Principally, it has become more obvious now that thoughts and perceptions affect the economic decisions people make, as much as prices and incomes. Economics is thus not an exact science, but an interpretive discipline and a diagnostic science. It is also obvious that economic thinking/actions are shaped by social consciousness. The universe of economics is cultural, and common thinking is essentially intergenerational. Mental-cultural relationships affect human behavior and shape how households, firms, civil society, and even governments reason and act. Hence, to be relevant, the new economics has to be behavioral, less deterministic, less individualistic, and more culturally and ideologically inspired. Prof. Uwem Essia is an economist with many years of teaching, research, and consulting experience in economics, the management sciences, and related human development fields. He is currently engaged in private studies and publishing.