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  4. December 2019
  5. Rationalizing Choice: A Review Essay on Peter Leeson's WTF?!: An Economic Tour of the Weird

Rationalizing Choice: A Review Essay on Peter Leeson's WTF?!: An Economic Tour of the Weird

  • Rajiv Sethi
Journal of Economic Literature
vol. 57, no. 4, December 2019
(pp. 988-1000)
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Abstract

The methodology of economics has been applied with increasing frequency to nonmarket behavior and interactions. Peter Leeson's book WTF?!: An Economic Tour of the Weird illustrates both the promise and the perils of this practice. When applied judiciously to environments in which the strategic obfuscation of true motives is widespread, the economic approach can yield valuable insights. But when applied without proper attention to prevailing norms and values, the attempt to rationalize behavior can fall flat and invite ridicule. Economists seeking to understand cultural practices would do well to import insights from other disciplines, and temper their eagerness to export narrow conceptions of rationality.

Citation

Sethi, Rajiv. 2019. "Rationalizing Choice: A Review Essay on Peter Leeson's WTF?!: An Economic Tour of the Weird." Journal of Economic Literature, 57 (4): 988-1000. DOI: 10.1257/jel.20181509

Additional Materials

JEL Classification

  • A12 Relation of Economics to Other Disciplines
  • B41 Economic Methodology
  • D01 Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles
  • D10 Household Behavior: General
  • D23 Organizational Behavior; Transaction Costs; Property Rights
  • Z13 Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification