Economics without Preferences

Michael Mandler is a Professor of Economics at Royal Holloway College, University of London. He is an economic theorist who has taught at the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University and is the author of Dilemmas in Economic Theory (1999).

• Preface; 1. Marginal utility matters; Part I. Trade-Offs and Rationality: 2. Utility as an ordering principle; 3. Incomplete preferences; 4. The rationality of choice; 5. Safety bias; 6. The myth of indifference; part II. Economic Analysis and Policy Without Preferences: 7. The volatility of prices; 8. Trouble with welfare economics; 9. Pareto without preferences; 10. Utilitarianism without utility; 11. Production and rationality; 12. Custom and flexibility; Appendix.

'Michael Mandler is one of the most brilliant and unorthodox minds in social science and Economics without Preferences is his masterwork. Mandler's fascinating reformulation of economic theory via the relaxation of conventional notions of rationality is pathbreaking. This book demonstrates that the empirical limitations of neoclassical theory can be constructively and compellingly addressed to produce a richer and more powerful formal framework for understanding individual and collective behavior. Every economist should study this wonderful book.' Steven Durlauf, Director, Stone Center for Research on Wealth Inequality and Mobility, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago