How can these coefficients (and the values of these variables) be
determined? Only by engaging in extensive empirical research. There is
no way for any theory or "explanation" to predict these values. We have
yet to reach the stage of being able to quantify, measure and
numerically predict human behaviour and personality (=the set of
adaptive traits and their interactions with changing circumstances).
That economics is a branch of psychology is becoming more evident by
the day. It would do well to lose its mathematical pretensions and
adopt the statistical methods of its humbler relative.
The second fallacy is the assumption underlying both rational and
behavioural economics that human nature is an "object" to be analysed
and "studied", that it is static and unchanged. But, of course, humans
change inexorably. This is the only fixed feature of being human:
change. Some changes are unpredictable, even in deterministic
principle. Other changes are well documented. An example of the latter
class of changes in the learning curve. Humans learn and the more they
learn the more they alter their behaviour. So, to obtain any meaningful
data, one has to observe behaviour in time, to obtain a sequence of
reactions and actions.
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