University of Michigan Law School Scholarship Repository
Abstract
Daniel Kahneman\u27s recent book, Thinking, Fast and Slow, is a must-read for any scholar or policymaker interested in behavioral economics. Behavioral economics is a young, but already well-established, discipline that pervasively affects law and legal theory. Kahneman, a 2002 Nobel Laureate, is the discipline\u27s founding father. His pioneering work with Amos Tversky and others challenges the core economic concept of expected utility, which serves to determine the value of people\u27s prospects. Under mainstream economic theory, the value of a person\u27s prospect equals the prospect\u27s utility upon materialization (U) multiplied by the probability of the prospect materializing (P). When the prospect is advantageous, its utility is a positive sum that augments the person\u27s well-being. When the prospect is disadvantageous, its utility is a negative sum (a disutility) that decreases the person\u27s well-being. Under both scenarios, the full amount of the person\u27s utility or disutility is discounted by the prospect\u27s probability of not materializing. Economic theory holds that the expected-utility formula, P • U, ought to determine a rational person\u27s choice among available courses of action. The action yielding the highest expected utility is the one that the person ought rationally to prefer over the alternatives
