OF THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS

This special issue of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior is devoted to behavioral economics-a relatively new yet expanding area of research and theory in the experimental analysis of behavior. Economics was first addressed in this journal (as indicated by the index) in an experimental report by Green and Rachlin in 1975. Since that report, behavioral economic articles have appeared with increasing frequency (see Figure 1), with the greatest number of articles published in the 3-year period from 1991 to 1993 (the last years covered by the index). Many who read this journal may wonder what the appeal is of a discipline that is often cited for its inability to predict national trends accurately and that is frequently the target of jokes. (e.g., "If all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they wouldn't reach a conclusion. And if they did, it probably would be wrong.") Indeed, many might view this attraction to economics as a movement in a direction opposite to that of the current trends of embracing biological approaches, be they molecular approaches (the traditional provenance of the neurosciences) or evolutionary approaches (currently receiving increasing attention in the behavior-analytic field). Economics and biology, however, may not be as far apart as one might initially assume. Darwin, after all, was strongly influenced by the two Scottish economists, Thomas Malthus and Adam Smith, and the formal similarity between Smith's laissez-faire economy and Darwin's theory of natural selection has been noted by Gould (1993). The appeal of economics for behavior analysis results not from its reputation (or lack thereof), nor from its relationship to biology. Rather, pragmatic considerations motivate its adoption: Economics provides a rich area of knowledge and conceptual elegance that offers new independent variables, methods of analysis, and dependent measures. New independent variables such as income and open and closed economies suggest a new view of choice and schedule performance; new methods of analysis such as unit price permit a parsimonious integration of multiple interacting variables and, importantly, specify mathematically how those variables interact; new measures such as elasticity (proportional change in consumption as a function of increasing price) and substitutability measure different features of reinforcers, ones that might be useful in comparing reinforcing events. These and other economic concepts and measurers also motivate alternative theoretical conceptualizations of how reinforcers influence behavior and compel the consideration of new applications and techniques for behavior change. Having said this, however, we acknowledge that considerably more work will be necessary to identify the extent to which economics might further the behavior-analytic enterprise. Moreover, we recognize that the economic assertions that choices are rational and that they optimize utility are troubling to many in the field (as these assertions are to many in other fields as well). Concerns for rationality and utility maximization, however, are not part and parcel of every economic approach. One may embrace the use of economic concepts without also clinging to utility maximization. Economics is not a unitary enterprise. Its diversity, as is that of behavior analysis, can be gleaned from this special issue. The articles that comprise this special issue congregate into three loose and overlapping themes: choice, demand-curve analysis, and the comparative analysis of behavioral economics.