Robert Sugden (economist)

Robert Sugden
Cognitive & Behavioural Economics
Born August 26, 1949
Nationality United Kingdom
Institution University of East Anglia, Norwich
Field Microeconomics
Alma mater University of York, UK
Opposed Thaler, Sunstein, Sen, Roemer
Influences Harsanyi, Rawls, Smith, Hume, Mill, and Hayek
Influenced Binmore, Starmer, Loomes, Karakostas
Contributions welfare economics, social choice, decision theory, evolutionary social theory, regret theory
Information at IDEAS/RePEc

Robert Sugden (born 26 August 1949) is an English author in the area of cognitive and behavioural economics. Professor Sugden’s research combines game theory (mainly experimental game theory and coordination games) with moral and political philosophy. He is associated with the classical-liberal tradition of Hume, Mill, and Hayek.

Contents

Theory

Robert Sugden shows how conventions of property, mutual aid, and voluntary supply of public goods can evolve spontaneously out of the interactions of self-interested individuals, and can become moral norms.[1]

He argues that economic models are not abstractions from, or simplifications of, the real world, but rather descriptions of imaginary worlds whose validity can only be inferred by how reasonable their predictions are.[2]

Robert Sugden explores a number of violations of the von Neumann and Morgenstern's expected utility axioms, and develops regret theory with Graham Loomes. He develops a number of experimental methods to test theories of decision under risk.[3]

Awards and fellowships

Selected papers

Books

References

  1. ^ R Sugden, The economics of rights, co-operation, and welfare (1986)
  2. ^ R Sugden, Credible worlds: the status of theoretical models in economics (2000), Journal of Economic Methodology
  3. ^ G Loomes and R Sugden, Regret theory: An alternative theory of rational choice under uncertainty (1982), The Economic Journal

External links