Critical Book Review - Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely (2008 or Essay

Critical Book Review - Predictably Irrational - Dan Ariely (2008 or 2009 edn) - Essay Example However, this is not always the case. The book discusses that how cognitive psychology influences the ability of an individual to assess the pros and cons of a given economic situation. Behavioural economics being the focus, the book also develops an interdisciplinary approach and topics such as finance, market and management are explored from time to time. The book has been written by Dan Ariely. He is an Israeli – American professor of behavioural economics and psychology. Ariely is currently appointed as a professor in the Duke University, Department of Economics. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute of the same university. (Duke University, 2010) He has a strong grip of psychology and behavioural economics and hence he is better able to analyze people. His background suggests he has intercultural exposure as he has been brought up in Israel and now he works in USA. I think this helps him to develop a deeper insight of the people’s behaviour. Dan Ariely spent his early life in Israel. As a native Israeli, Ariely was engaged in military service when he was eighteen years old. While at service, a magnesium flare explosion left him severely injured. He had 3rd degree burns almost all over his body, and he had to remain in hospital bed for a long time. During this period of his life, Ariely began to reflect on human behaviour. For example, he wondered why the nurses removed his bandages in the way they did. Were they able to behave according to their intention to relieve him? If not, why? He also noted the behaviour of the other patients around him. It is from here Ariely started his research on irrational behaviour of individuals. The book is well structured and planned. It has thirteen chapters. Some chapters have impressive titles like ‘Power of Price (Why a 50-Cent Aspirin Can Do What a Penny Aspirin Can’t?)’ (Ariely, 2009: p. 173) and ‘The Effect of Expectations (Why the Mind Gets What It Expects?)â€℠¢ (Ariely, 2009: p. 155). These sorts of topics are certainly thought provoking. As the reader looks at the outline of the book, his or her curiosity is increased. The sections in each of Ariely’s chapters tell a story, describe it well and conduct an experiment. Finally, at the end of every chapter, Ariely analyzes the inferences and develops postulates on how the results obtained so far can change a person’s economic behaviour. In the book, the writer has not merely criticized classical economics. He has expressed his concern about behavioural irrationalities too. In the context of the books describing anomalies and irrationalities, there is â€Å"a growing fan base within disciplines outside of economics† (McKenzie, 2009: p. 32). Ariely respects the readers from this fan base and he is tireless to continuously explain his economic views so that the readers from non-economics background can also understand the key concepts. The basic idea of the book (as we fi nd in its 2008 ed. too) delivers a strong blow to the very concept that we can operate a system on the basis of the assumptions that people will always act according to the rational calculus. Cognitive inconsistencies are real factors, and they should be analyzed and reflected on by the academia, government, corporations and policy makers. In practice, economic strategies are actually directed to appeal to emotion, not rational calculus (Thomas, 2008). Further, as reviewed by Doctorow (2010), â€Å"

Real GDP Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Real GDP - Coursework Example The overall macroeconomic picture of United Kingdom looks quite bright as the country remained successful in increasing the real GDP growth until 2008 recession which hit the country hard and after almost two decades, the country experienced negative growth in terms of real GDP. Before this recent negative growth rate in GDP, the country in question experienced negative growth in real GDP in 1991 once again due to economic recessionary period. The above chart shows the performance of real GDP of United Kingdom. As it can be seen quite clearly that the country managed a sustainable increase in the real GDP especially experience high growth in the period of 1980-90, but the real GDP showed disappointing results just after 90’s. After the 1993, the country again started to climb highly in terms of real GDP till 2008 recession. Since 2008 recession, the country’s real GDP growth is the slowest in the past 40 years.  Ã‚  Real GDP per capita of United Kingdom has also remai ned increasingly stable even though the population of United Kingdom has also increased. But the country has managed to cover the effect of population increase as well as increased the real GDP alone. In a nutshell, the real GDP per capita of United Kingdom increased in almost in the same manner as that of total real GDP even though the real GDP per capita also incorporated the increasing impact of population. The above chart represents the overall performance of real GDP per capita of United Kingdom. It can be noticed that there are slight downfalls in the curve but the overall curve possesses an increasing trend until the 2008 recessionary period. Since then, the real GDP per capita is on a declining trend mainly due to decrease in the total real GDP supported by the increase in the population. The percentage growth rates for real GDP and real GDP per capita have also been calculated. It can also be observed that growth rate of real GDP has experienced an increasing trend in the p eriod of 1970 – 2009 with the exceptions of initial few year of 70’s, 1991 and lastly 2008. In those mentioned years the macroeconomic growth of United Kingdom remained negative due to the economic depression all around the world. Similar patterns can also be observed with real GDP per capita of United Kingdom in the period in question. Real GDP per capita seems to track its origin i.e. real GDP and followed it almost every year. It can be summarized the United Kingdom has been well above the positive real GDP in the past 40 years which is a good indicator of its overall macroeconomic progress.