Shackle's Economic Agent and Modern Decision Theory

University of Siena Economics Working Paper No. 394

24 Pages Posted: 12 Jan 2004

See all articles by Marcello Basili

Marcello Basili

University of Siena - Dipartimento di Economia Politica; University of Siena - Department of Economic Policy, Finance and Development

Carlo Zappia

University of Siena - Department of Economics and Statistics

Date Written: August 2003

Abstract

This paper assesses the rationale of George Shackle's argument against Bayesian decision making in the light of recent developments of modern decision theory. The focus is on the so-called non-additive probability approach to decision theory under uncertainty, which, not unlike Shackle's analysis, stresses the inability of agents to describe uncertain environments. A discussion of the pros and cons of the parallel between Shackle's theory and the non-additive developments is provided.

Keywords: uncertainty, decision theory, non-additive probabilities

JEL Classification: B21, D81

Suggested Citation

Basili, Marcello and Zappia, Carlo, Shackle's Economic Agent and Modern Decision Theory (August 2003). University of Siena Economics Working Paper No. 394, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=467401 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.467401

Marcello Basili (Contact Author)

University of Siena - Dipartimento di Economia Politica ( email )

Piazza San Francesco 7
Siena, 53100
Italy

University of Siena - Department of Economic Policy, Finance and Development ( email )

Piazza San Francesco, 7
Siena, 53100
Italy

Carlo Zappia

University of Siena - Department of Economics and Statistics ( email )

Piazza San Francesco 7
Siena, Siena 53100
Italy

HOME PAGE: http://docenti-deps.unisi.it/carlozappia/

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