After all, what is bounded rationality? A critical appraisal of Herbert Simon’s legacy

• Ano de defesa: 2025
• Autor(a) principal: Marchetti, Bruno Cunha [UNESP]
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Universidade Estadual Paulista (Unesp)
• Palavras-chave em Português: Bounded rationality; Economic methodology; History of economic thought; Economic Behavior; Racionalidade limitada; Metodologia econômica; História do pensamento econômico; Comportamento econômico
• Link de acesso: https://hdl.handle.net/11449/311558

Bounded Rationality is one of the most celebrated ideas in economic history. Its simple demeanor and adaptability, however, obfuscate a complex development and the circumstances that generated it. This dissertation inserts itself in the discussion of Bounded Rationality, on two main fronts: 1) to identify the conceptual origins of Bounded Rationality in Herbert Simon, and 2) to highlight the paths of development of this behavioral theory. A main argument permeates this whole dissertation: that the concept of Bounded Rationality developed in Simon’s work served as a basis for future developments; however, no researcher followed his specific methodological steps. Therefore, the impact of Herbert Simon and of “Bounded Rationality” differ, even if this fact is seldom noticed. As such, the “legacy of Herbert Simon” is ambiguous at best. Besides an ample review of the literature and science of Herbert Simon (Chapter I), this research also investigated the traditional interpretations of Simon’s influence in the form of the many strands of behavioral economics (Chapter II). Furthermore, this dissertation also employs a bibliometric analysis of bibliographical data of (roughly) the last decade (Chapter III). The objectives of this research are: 1) to identify how Simon impacted economics, 2) how this impact evolved after him, and 3) to paint a broad picture of the evolution of Bounded Rationality that is happening right now. This effort, we hope, is fruitful to the discussion of Bounded Rationality.