The use of intentional language in scientific articles in finance

Rosenberg claims that economics must use the 'intentional idiom' for its explanatory strategies. We examine whether scientific articles in financial economics do in fact ascribe propositional attitudes to economic agents. We look at articles in the Journal of Finance , volume 54 (1999), where we find a total of 250 502 words in 29 articles. The total number of ascriptions of the intentional states of belief, desire, expectation or preference to economic agents is 137, with 26 of 29 articles making 10 or fewer ascriptions. We propose other areas where intentionality might be found in these articles.