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Course Description

 

 

Introduction to Cognitive Economics

 

 

Salvatore Rizzello

http://www.de.unito.it/web/member/rizzello/personal-CV.htm

 

The main aim of the course is to illustrate the most important  aspects characterizing cognitive economics and their applications to economic theory. After the definition of the cognitive approach to economics, the course proposes a historical reconstruction of its profound roots in the history of economic thought and proposes an investigation of its analytical tools and applications.

 

 

 

Lecture 1. A general framework of the historical roots. From Alfred Marshall to Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith

 

 

Required readings:

 

 

Massimo Egidi and Salvatore Rizzello 2003, Cognitive Economics: Foundations and Historical Evolution (with Massimo Egidi), in Egidi – Rizzello (eds.) 2003 Cognitive Economics, two volumes for the series The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics, E. Elgar 

 

Salvatore Rizzello 2003, Introduction: Towards a Cognitive Evolutionary Economics, in Rizzello 2003 – Cognitive Developments in Economics (ed.), Routledge, London

 

 

Optional readings:

 

Salvatore Rizzello 1999, The Economics of the Mind, Aldershot, Edward Elgar

 

 

Lecture 2. Human decision making in a cognitive perspective and its relevance for economic change;

 

 

Required readings:

 

Salvatore Rizzello 2000 "Economic Change, Subjective Perception, and Institutional Evolution", Metroeconomica, 51 (2), pp. 127 – 150.

 

Salvatore Rizzello 2004,  Knowledge as Path-dependence Process, Journal of Bioeconomics, 6, 255 - 274

 

 

 

Lecture 3. Mind, Organizations and Institutions: the crucial link;

 

 

Required readings:

 

Salvatore Rizzello and Margherita Turvani 2000 "Institutions Meet Mind: A Way out of a Deadlock", Constitutional Political Economy, Vol. 11 (2), pp. 165-180.

 

Salvatore Rizzello and Margherita Turvani 2002, Subjective Diversity and Social Learning: A cognitive perspective for understanding institutional behavior, Constitutional Political Economy, 13, 201 -214

 

 

Lecture 4. Cognitive Experimental Economics.

 

 

Required readings:

 

Marco Novarese and  Salvatore Rizzello 1999 "Origin and Recent Developments of Experimental Economics " Storia del Pensiero Economico, n. 38.                                                                                                                                     

 

Marco Novarese (2003) "Toward a Cognitive Experimental Economics", in Cognitive Paradigms in Economics  (S. Rizzello ed), Routledge, London, 2003

 

Salvatore Rizzello

Salvatore Rizzello is full professor of Cognitive Economics and History of Economic Thought at the University of Piemonte Orientale and professor of Cultural Economics at the University of Torino (Italy). He’s director of the Centre for Cognitive Economics at University of Piemonte Orientale and National Secretary of the Italian Association for the History of Political Economy (Storep) www.storep.org. From 2001 to 2004  he was National Secretary of the Italian Association of Cognitive Sciences (http://www.aisc-net.it/).