KATONA, GEORGE.

Psychological Analysis of Economic Behavior.

New York, McGraw-Hill, 1951. 8vo. In the original full cloth with gilt lettering to spine and front board. Small stamp to front free end paper, otherwise a very fine and clean copy. VII, (3), 347 pp.

First edition, second impression of Katona's seminal work constituting one of the very first to advocate a rapprochement between economics and psychologists.
Katona contrasted "genuine decision" and "habitual behavior". In fact, neoclassical economics deemed human decision making as genuine decision (with complete rationality), whereas evolutionary economics emphasized that economic behavior take a form of habits and customs.


"Katona developed the theory and substance of psychological economics, with particular attention to the effects of national events on the confidence, expectations, plans and ultimately behaviour of masses of individual. From a background in Gestalt psychology, he noted that there can be major restructuring of the way people interpret their world and its future, leading to sometimes dramatic shifts in behaviour." (The New Palgrave).

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