American Economic Association Nashville, TN 0022-8282 Journal of Economic Literature http://www.aeaweb.org/journal.html 47 2 June 2009 http://www.aeaweb.org/issue.php?journal=JEL&volume=47&issue=2 Journal Article Front Matter 313 314 http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.47.2.313 10.1257/jel.47.2.313 American Economic Association Nashville, TN 0022-8282 Journal of Economic Literature http://www.aeaweb.org/journal.html 47 2 June 2009 http://www.aeaweb.org/issue.php?journal=JEL&volume=47&issue=2 Journal Article Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field StefanoDellaVignaU CA, Berkeley 315 72 The research in Psychology and Economics (a.k.a. Behavioral Economics) suggests that individuals deviate from the standard model in three respects: (1) nonstandard preferences, (2) nonstandard beliefs, and (3) nonstandard decision making. In this paper, I survey the empirical evidence from the field on these three classes of deviations. The evidence covers a number of applications, from consumption to finance, from crime to voting, from charitable giving to labor supply. In the class of nonstandard preferences, I discuss time preferences (self-control problems), risk preferences (reference dependence), and social preferences. On nonstandard beliefs, I present evidence on overconfidence, on the law of small numbers, and on projection bias. Regarding nonstandard decision making, I cover framing, limited attention, menu effects, persuasion and social pressure, and emotions. I also present evidence on how rational actors -- firms, employers, CEOs, investors, and politicians -- respond to the nonstandard behavior described in the survey. Finally, I briefly discuss under what conditions experience and market interactions limit the impact of the nonstandard features. http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.47.2.315 10.1257/jel.47.2.315 American Economic Association Nashville, TN 0022-8282 Journal of Economic Literature http://www.aeaweb.org/journal.html 47 2 June 2009 http://www.aeaweb.org/issue.php?journal=JEL&volume=47&issue=2 Journal Article Can the West Save Africa? WilliamEasterlyNYU 373 447 In the new millennium, the Western aid effort toward Africa has surged due to writings by well-known economists, a celebrity mass advocacy campaign, and decisions by Western leaders to make Africa a major foreign policy priority. This survey contrasts the predominant "transformational" approach (West comprehensively saves Africa) to occasional swings to a "marginal" approach (West takes one small step at a time to help individual Africans). Evaluation of "one step at a time" initiatives is generally easier than that of transformational ones either through controlled experiments (although these have been oversold) or simple case studies where it is easier to attribute outcomes to actions. We see two themes emerge from the literature survey: (1) escalation -- as each successive Western transformational effort has yielded disappointing results (as judged at least by stylized facts, since again the econometrics are shaky), the response has been to try an even more ambitious effort and (2) the cycle of ideas -- rather than a progressive testing and discarding of failed ideas, we see a cycle in aid ideas in many areas in Africa, with ideas going out of fashion only to come back again later after some lapse long enough to forget the previous disappointing experience. Both escalation and cyclicality of ideas are symptomatic of the lack of learning that seems to be characteristic of the "transformational" approach. In contrast, the "marginal" approach has had some successes in improving the well-being of individual Africans, such as the dramatic fall in mortality. http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.47.2.373 10.1257/jel.47.2.373 American Economic Association Nashville, TN 0022-8282 Journal of Economic Literature http://www.aeaweb.org/journal.html 47 2 June 2009 http://www.aeaweb.org/issue.php?journal=JEL&volume=47&issue=2 Journal Article Gender Differences in Preferences RachelCrosonU TX, Dallas UriGneezyU CA, San Diego 448 74 This paper reviews the literature on gender differences in economic experiments. In the three main sections, we identify robust differences in risk preferences, social (other-regarding) preferences, and competitive preferences. We also speculate on the source of these differences, as well as on their implications. Our hope is that this article will serve as a resource for those seeking to understand gender differences and to use as a starting point to illuminate the debate on gender-specific outcomes in the labor and goods markets. http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.47.2.448 10.1257/jel.47.2.448 American Economic Association Nashville, TN 0022-8282 Journal of Economic Literature http://www.aeaweb.org/journal.html 47 2 June 2009 http://www.aeaweb.org/issue.php?journal=JEL&volume=47&issue=2 Journal Article A Review of Michael Tomz's Reputation and International Cooperation: Sovereign Debt across Three Centuries MarkGersovitzJohns Hopkins U 475 81 Repudiation and expropriation pose obstacles to the international mobility of capital and thereby to efficient international allocation of resources. Tomz discusses the determinants of lending in the face of the threat of repudiation. Using history, he argues that debtor countries have sought a reputation for compliance with loan agreements to access future loans and that military or trade sanctions have been unimportant in sustaining lending. He discusses when and why banks have been more active as lenders relative to bondholders. This article situates Tomz's concerns in the broad themes of thought on obstacles to capital mobility and evaluates his arguments. http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.47.2.475 10.1257/jel.47.2.475 American Economic Association Nashville, TN 0022-8282 Journal of Economic Literature http://www.aeaweb.org/journal.html 47 2 June 2009 http://www.aeaweb.org/issue.php?journal=JEL&volume=47&issue=2 Journal Article Book Reviews 482 541 http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.47.2.482 10.1257/jel.47.2.482 American Economic Association Nashville, TN 0022-8282 Journal of Economic Literature http://www.aeaweb.org/journal.html 47 2 June 2009 http://www.aeaweb.org/issue.php?journal=JEL&volume=47&issue=2 Journal Article Annotated Listing of New Books 542 634 http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.47.2.542 10.1257/jel.47.2.542 American Economic Association Nashville, TN 0022-8282 Journal of Economic Literature http://www.aeaweb.org/journal.html 47 2 June 2009 http://www.aeaweb.org/issue.php?journal=JEL&volume=47&issue=2 Journal Article JEL Classification System 635 648 http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/jel.47.2.635 10.1257/jel.47.2.635