“Dilemmas of an Economic Theorist,” Ariel Rubinstein 2006

Rubinstein discusses philosophical issues, in the style of “an outpouring from a therapists couch”, concerning theoretical micro. He says micro theory often leads to absurd conclusions (as in the Rabin-Thaler critique of expected utility), is often not relevant for the real world, indoctrinates students into an unfortunate “economic man” way of thinking, ignores interesting results that cannot be captured with theory, and has the problem that nearly any theory can be refuted with some data (his example comes from hyperbolic discounting).

Rubinstein 2006

Advertisement