We don’t have a hundred biases, we have the wrong model
Behavioral economics has identified dozens of cognitive biases that stop us from acting 'rationally'. But instead of building up a messier and messier picture of human behavior, we need a new model.

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International development was revolutionized by experiments and evaluations of its methods. Meta-science can learn from it.
- Economics
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Is a build up of generic regulations together causing us to be three times poorer than we need to be? Probably not. But the insidious rise of risk aversion is still a big drag on economic growth.
- Economics
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We may not have flying cars or cheap, abundant energy. But we do have incredible information technology that we take for granted – and we’re mismeasuring the huge aggregate benefits it is having.
- Economics
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When America’s economy overtook Britain’s a century ago, it remade the world order. How it happened is still debated – but might help us understand whether China could do the same to America today.
- Economics
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Ireland’s housing bubble and bust has become emblematic of what not to do in housing debates around the world. The only problem is nobody agrees what actually went wrong.
- Economics
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The height of skyscrapers is limited by physical, economic and regulatory barriers, but we should want to overcome them and build taller. Here’s how we can do it.
- Economics
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How do technologies get off the ground? As well as seed funding, many of the best technologies require Buyers of First Resort, which buy products until they improve enough to get to efficient scale.
- Economics
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Western housing shortages do not just prevent many from ever affording their own home. They also drive inequality, climate change, low productivity growth, obesity, and even falling fertility rates.
- Economics
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Everybody loves to hate Bitcoin. Yet big business is spending hundreds of millions on it, helping to drive the price higher and higher. It’s easy to dismiss that as a marketing fad. But what if it’s not?
- Economics
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Although many commentators have asserted a tradeoff between health and the economy, comparing the debt to the financial crisis, economists are uniformly in favour of spending to suppress the virus.
- Economics
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As rental prices continue to climb in San Francisco, tech firms have looked to relocate in other cities. Without major housing reforms, the next Silicon Valley will face the same fate.
- Economics
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Crises upend plans, force people to re-evaluate their priorities, and bring into focus new goals. Financial markets give us hints of what we can expect from the aftermath of Covid-19.
- Economics
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While rents have been soaring for years in urban areas around the world, one Australian city has weathered the storm. What can the world learn from the experiences of Sydney?
- Economics
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Some of the greatest advances in technology have emerged from bringing intelligent people together to solve problems. How do tech clusters develop & how can we use them to replicate past successes?
- Economics
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New technologies can be dangerous, threatening the very survival of humanity. Is economic growth inherently risky, and how do we maximize the chances of a flourishing future?
- Economics
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Throughout history, states struggled to maintain power, having to rely on private agents and enforcers to fund themselves and govern their citizens. How did they transition to the states we see today?
- Economics
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For a time in recent history, R&D labs seemed to exist in a golden age of innovation and productivity. But this period vanished as swiftly as it came to be. How did it happen, and why did it fade away?
- Economics