Abstract
We consider the potentially major role of lay economic representations in economic theoretical modelling. Departing both from the rational expectation hypothesis, that supposes a maximal cognitive fit between agents’ representations and the variables in the model , and from an approach in terms of psychological biases that would externally affect agents’representation of their environment, we consider that lay representations have essential features that make them potentially valuable tools for the reconciliation of normative and practical perspectives in macroeconomics. By reviewing a series of studies in the sub-field of the psychology of lay economics, we first emphasize the collective and pragmatically-oriented features of these lay economic representations. We thereby uncover the major role of language and meaning, seemingly non-economic human institutions, in laying down the basis for economic understanding. Secondly, we directly address the question of the internal logic and cognitive features of these representations and uncover/in uncovering typical circular causal reasoning in lay macroeconomics. We finally re-assess the question of the maximal fit between ordinary economic psychology and predictive economic modelling.
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Notes
Objectification in Moscovici’s original formulation constitutes one of the two processes (the other is the anchoring) which form social representations. Objectification “translates some of the characteristics of an unfamiliar object or situation into the terms of lay reality”(Roland-Lévy et al. 2010, p. 143).
The «anchoring» process included two aspects: “a cognitive aspect according to which the object or situation is integrated into the previous thoughts of individuals. The second aspect is a social one and deals with a social group giving meaning to a representation.”(Roland-Lévy et al. 2010, p. 143).
Attribution refers here to attribution theory in social psychology.
The Okun law «states that there is an inverse relationship between changes in unemployment and in the level of economic activity» (Dixon et al. 2014, p. 14).
The Phillips curve (Phillips 1958) implies an inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation rates. The Phillips law can also be considered as the illustration of the main trade-off that central banks have to face.
«Given a credible inflation target, the output stabilization will help in reducing the correlation of biases beliefs thereby reducing the scopes of waves of optimism and pessimism to emerge and to destabilize output and inflation» [De Grauwe 2012, p. 500].
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Darriet, E., Bourgeois-Gironde, S. Why lay social representations of the economy should count in economics. Mind Soc 14, 245–258 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-015-0177-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-015-0177-9