Books on behavioral and experimental economics

At Geary Behavioural Economics Blog @LiamDelaneyUCD is looking for books on behavioral economics. Given my interest in the field, I would like to add a few books. I add a few on experimental economics, too, as both fields are close relatives.

First, let’s see what he already has on his list:

• “Judgement Under Uncertainty: Heurisics and Biases” edited by Kahnemann, Slovic, and Tverky
• “Choices, Values, and Frames” edited by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky
• “Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgement.” edited by Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin, and Daniel Kahneman

These three books were indeed among the first books on behavioral economics that I bought myself at the beginning of my PhD. They are good collections of a number of great papers.

Next came:

• “Advances in Behavioural Economics” edited by Camerer, Loewenstein, and Rabin
• Camerer’s “Behavioral Game Theory”
• “Exotic Preferences” by Lowenstein which really is (I have to agree) a great overview of his work on preference formation, emotion and decision making

Just before I moved to Bremen and joined Jacobs University the following two books gained a place on my book shelf

• Behavioral Economics and its Applications edited by Peter Diamond and Hannu Vartiainen. This is a great overview of some of the most recent applications of behavioral economics and a prospective research agenda.
• “An Introduction to Behavioral Economics” by Nicolas Wilkinson, a textbook that adds a historical context to the different topics it discusses. I liked it.

I have not read so far

• Frey and Stutzer’s “Economics and Psychology: A Promising New Cross-Disciplinary Field”
• Peter Lunn’s recent book “Basic Instincts: Human Nature and the New Economics”

On the pop-economics front @LiamDelaneyUCD lists

• the popular “Nudge” by Thaler and Sunstein
• and Dan Ariely’s “Predictably Irrational”

And in the comments are a number of books mentioned that I have not read so far:

• William Poundstone’s “Priceless”
• Ori and Rom Brafman, Sway: The Irresistible Pull of Irrational Behaviour
• Akerlof and Shiller, Animal Spirits

All three of them are already on my to-read-shelf.

Last but not least, everything by Herbert Simon, and in particular “Human Problem Solving” is mentioned.

Ok. What can I add to this list?

First, two collections:

• “The Construction of Preferences” edited by Lichtenstein an Slovic
• “Quasi Rational Economics” by Richard Thaler.

Both are highly recommended!

On morals, ethics and (behavioral) economics:

• “Moral Sentiment and Material Interest” by Gintis, Bowles, Boyd, and Fehr
• “Explaining Social Behavior” by Jon Elster
• “Moral Markets” edited by Paul Zak
• “Moral and Markets” by Dan Friedman

On behavioral game theory

• “Rational Decisions” by Ken Binmore
• “The Bounds of Reason” by Herb Gintis

And finally, a few essential books on experimental economics:

• “The Handbook of Experimental Economics” by Kagel and Roth
• “Handbook of Experimental Economics Results” by Plott and Smith
• “The Methodology of Experimental Economics” by Francesco Guala
• “Experimental Economics – Rethinking the Rules” by Bardsley, Cubitt, Loomes, Moffatt, Starmer, and Sudgen

 Enjoy!