Term
| The "Becker Approach to Human Behavior" can be applied to: |
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Definition
| Any form of human behavior: the evolution of language, church attendance, capital punishment, the legal system, the extinction of animals, and the incidence of suicide. |
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Term
| Becker predicted that humans smoke even though they know it is bad for them because: |
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Definition
“There is an ‘optimal' expected length of life, where the value in utility of an additional year is less
than the utility foregone by using time and other resources to obtain that year.” |
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Term
| Becker's economic approach explains marriage and divorce by: |
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Definition
"A married person terminates his or her marriage when the utility anticipated from becoming single or marrying someone else exceeds the loss in utility
from separation, including losses due to
physical separation from one’s children,
division of joint assets, legal fees and so
forth." |
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Term
Becker argues that human and institutional
behaviors are considered: |
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Definition
| "‘irrational’, such as ‘war’, have not been understood yet, because economic analysis has not yet fully tackled it." |
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Term
| Becker applies principles of: |
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Definition
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Term
| Becker conducts research using 'normal science' which is: |
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Definition
| research that verifies and extends an existing paradigm. |
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Term
| Normal science consists primarily of: |
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Definition
formulating how a paradigm would be expressed in a particular context (hypothesizing) followed by some
form of empirical testing of the hypothesis. |
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Term
| Becker makes these three assumptions: |
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Definition
1.) Maximizing behavior
2.) Market equilibrium
3.) Stable preferences |
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Term
| Becker argues that people do not behave irrationally. |
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Definition
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Term
| Human beings are not engaged in maximizing behavior. |
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Definition
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Term
| There is a subfield of economics called 'behavioral economics' that differs than the Becker approach because: |
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Definition
| It is a combination of psychology and economics that investigates what happens in markets in which some of the individuals (or agents) display human limitations and complications. |
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Term
| Three ways humans deviate from Becker's approach: |
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Definition
1.) bounded rationality
2.) bounded willpower
3.) bounded self-interest |
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Term
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Definition
| -limited cognitive abilities that constrain human problem solving (since we only have so much brainpower, and so much time, we cannot be expected to solve problems optimally). |
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Term
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Definition
| sometimes people make choices that are not in their long-run interest. Even when we know what is best, sometimes we fail to make that choice for self-control reasons. |
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Term
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Definition
| humans are often willing to sacrifice their own interests to help others. |
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