The Legacy of Herbert Simon in Economic Analysis

Herbert A. Simon has been a leading contributor to cognitive psychology, computer science, public administration, philosophy and statistics, and is the winner of the 1978 Nobel Memorial Prize in economics. As this authoritative collection demonstrates, his impact on economics has been felt in areas as diverse as the theory of the firm and economic organization, consumer behaviour, law and economics, and environmental economics. Central to his work is the notion of bounded rationality - the mismatch between human decision-making capacities and the scale of the decision problems that people face, which results in satisficing rather than optimising behaviour - and his belief that economic research should start from the study of actual behaviour rather than being based on convenient but unrealistic assumptions. Peter Earl's choice of articles shows both the kind of economics that emerges when Simon's philosophy is followed comprehensively, and what happens when neo-classical economists partially adopt his ideas.