The assumption that utility is always maximized allows often surprising inferences about the nature of the desires that guide people's ever-rational choices. This methodology has had many uses and undeniably has charm for economists, but it rests on the shaky foundation of an implausible and...

Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman's last published paper is an adversarial collaboration in which he and Matthew Killingsworth reconcile conflicting empirical results from their previous research on income and reported happiness, with Barbara Mellers as a facilitator. The empirical results use...

Disclosure mandates are pervasive. Though designed to inform consumers, such mandates may lead consumers to draw false inferences – for example, that a product is harmful when it is not. When deciding to require disclosure of an ingredient in or characteristic of a product, regulators may be...