BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS:

Compared to other fields of economics, behavioural economics is a relatively recent branch to have emerged, making a breakthrough in the late 1970s and 1980s. A pretty decent book to introduce you to this new branch is Behavioural Economics: The Basics by Philip Corr and Anke Plagnol. The authors of this book have successfully described the psychological and economic aspects of decision-making using simple language, allowing readers to familiarise themselves with key concepts easily.

As a newer branch of economics, behavioural economics is increasingly gaining attention, with more and more books being published regarding this study. Typically, these books either fall within two categories: those that are heavy on the usage of mathematics to support models and act as empirical evidence, and those that are extremely simplified to the point of being a rather unacademic book, as in, those you would read to gain an understanding of rudimentary concepts. Behavioural Economics: The Basics is a combination of both. It combines the usage of simple language whilst also using graphs and simpler models.

Another interesting aspect regarding the book is how engaging it is. Every few pages, there are boxed features with additional psychological concepts and experiments, which is arguably my favourite part of the book. Rather than info-dumping alone, these experiments encourage you to think about the tests. Once you have made up your mind, you can further read and see how your thoughts align with others, or if they don't. Whilst reading this book, it became a bit of a game for me to see if my answers group me with the majority percentage of participants involved in the experiments or if I fall within the minority. This is part of why this book is actually a good read, the contents stick with you even after you have put the book down, and it creates a sense of curiosity to know even more, so you actually want to read the next page as well.

However, I do not agree with all aspects of this book. While this book certainly did put forward convincing arguments regarding the importance of including psychological factors in economics, it could be presumed that the authors have a slight disdain towards classical economics. Surely, the existing economic models and theories are self-sufficient, although not entirely accurate, they are still able to solve a great deal of problems and somewhat represent different arguments with clarity. Rather than focusing on their disapproval of standard economics, I think there should have been more supporting arguments for the book rather than collecting short stories or case studies, as anecdotal evidence isn't exactly concrete in results, as outcomes may vary over time or depending on the place and people involved. Therefore, the use of more empirical evidence could be appreciated.

Moreover, while the book's core focus is on behavioural economics, a major part of this field is mathematical models. The lack of mathematical models may not be a significant problem for those who are casual readers, but for those who want to get a deep dive into the topic, they may be left disappointed due to the lack of mathematical modelling or technical equations, which are of great importance. In the same line, there is a lack of elaboration in the methodology of the experiments carried out; some people may want to know more about how the experiments were carried out, or about the sample sizes, which unfortunately are not mentioned. 

Overall, Behavioural Economics: The Basics by Philip Corr and Anke Plagnol is still a great book for those who want a starting point to get into the subject of behavioural economics without worrying about whether the content is purely rudimentary, as the book does a good job of providing information without making it overbearing or underwhelming, so the reader is actually able to learn about the importance of psychology in economics in a engrossing manner, causing the content to actually be memorable.