Retrospectives: The Ethology of Homo Economicus

1 May 1995

journal article
Published by American Economic Association in Journal of Economic Perspectives

Vol. 9 (2) , 221-231
https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.9.2.221

Abstract

Early critics of John Stuart Mill attacked him for creating a monomaniacal economic man concerned only with the accumulation of money. In fact, Mill's construct possessed a considerably richer psychology including desires for leisure, luxury, and sexual relations. This psychology played a central role in Mill's analysis of alternative institutional regimes. Mill also considered the social origins, or ‘ethology,’ of preference structures. Mill's framework provides a useful reference point for ongoing work in comparative economics and feminist economics. In particular, Mill's emphasis on psychological parsimony needs careful reconsideration by advocates of enriching the motives of economic man.

Keywords

This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:

Meeting of the British Economic Association; The President's Address
The Economic Journal, 1893