300190 Bounded Rationality (S) (SoSe 2021)

In this course we we will read the book "Bounded Rationality and Industrial Organizations" by Ran Spiegler. Allthough nowadays allmost all social scientists and economists give lip service to the idea, that people are not rational supermen, but oftentimes only boundedly rational, there are only very few systematic investigations and monographs on this topic. Spiegler tackles it and gives it focus by assuming that economic organizations are rational but consumers might suffer from some specific rationality deficits, which these organizations in turn can exploit. From this perspective he is able to synthesize much of previous research and though it looks like a slightly nasty perspective, you will see, that the book is not an advice-book for managment attempting to outsmart customers. By the standards of sociology this book is pretty difficult reading and formally occasionally challenging, but the hope is, that together, we can handle this. You can download the book from our library home page

Requirements for participation, required level

Some persistence in reading a challenging book from cover to cover.

Bibliography

Ran Spiegler, Bounded Rationality and Industrial Organization, Oxford U.P. 2011.