Neuroeconomics

                               Neuroeconomics


Decision making is a fundamental part of human behavior. We all make decisions every day that influence our health, well-being, finances, and future prospects, among other things. Researchers have become increasingly interested in why we make the decisions we do, especially when, in many cases, these decisions do not appear to be rational or beneficial to us in the long run. While neoclassical economics has traditionally looked at how people should behave, other disciplines such as psychology and cognitive science have tried to answer the question of why people act the way they do. A new discipline, referred to as neuroeconomics, has sought to meld theory and methodology from diverse areas such as economics, psychology, neuroscience, and decision theory to create a model of human behavior that not only explains but also predicts how people make decisions (Glimcher & Rustichini, 2004). Neuroeconomics research examines how people make choices and attempts to determine the underlying neural basis for these choices and decisions. This research paper examines some of the seminal studies in neuroeconomics, highlighting the public policy implications and offering areas of future research where neuroeconomics could be applied.




                                                            Urooj Qureshi