Book Review: Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer, Eds. Economics and Psychology: A Promising New Cross-Disciplinary Field

Abstract

In Economics and Psychology: A Promising New Cross-disciplinary Field, Bruno S. Frey and Alois Stutzer have compiled a series of papers exploring the boundaries between the two fields. The volume consists of survey chapters and original contributions on specific topics. All but one of the chapters are written by economists, and concern areas in which psychology – socia-lpsychology in particular – contributes to economics. The book targets academic economists, and not academic psychologists or the general reader. Despite the well established, longstanding and prolific interdisciplinary relationship between the two fields, the editors, as title suggests, treat the intersection between economics and psychology as something new. 2 The book could more appropriately be framed as an argument for increased research into the specific topics that the editors and contributors view as the next frontier in cross-disciplinary research. 3 These include cooperative behavior, neuroeconomics, happiness, and procedural utility.