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TERRA ECONOMICUS

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  • Decision-making criteria. What fairy tales were read to entrepreneurs in their childhood? What is the optimal strategy of choosing the wife? What does the story of the three little pigs teach the economist?

Decision-making criteria. What fairy tales were read to entrepreneurs in their childhood? What is the optimal strategy of choosing the wife? What does the story of the three little pigs teach the economist?

TERRA ECONOMICUS, , Vol. 14 (no. 1),

J. Meynstring began one of his speeches (Oklahoma, 1929) with the outstanding words: «Do you think that economics is a dismal science? You just haven’t learnt the chemistry!» To continue the great Californian economist’s traditions, I introduce you a course of popular science lectures of economics, which I have given in Novosibirsk in last ten years. The fifth lecture is devoted to learning decisions-making criteria. It proposes simple interpretation of the base decision-making under uncertainty and decision-making under risk. At the end of the lecture there is a popular explanation of the basic rules of determine the probabilities used in the analysis of decision-making under risk. You will know how the choice of criterion (procedure) of decision-making can influence the outcome. What is the mistake of parents that build a worship of overly cautious fairy tale characters? You’ll understand that many fairy tales, as part of sociocultural adaptation mechanism, forms a rejection of risk, negative attitude to losses and forms pessimism. You’ll explore the assumption, why there are so few entrepreneurs. Finally, you’ll know who was the most rational in the tale about the three little pigs. You will be offered the optimal strategy of searching a wife, a secretary and an employee. You’ll learn what mental mistakes we make, when we appreciate the probabilities. You’ll know, how to use these assessments, so they do not become a reason of great financial losses. You’ll ponder over the role of randomness in your life. And at the end of the lecture you will get to know the evidence of the rational character of the faith that was proposed by the famous mathematician Blaise Pascal.


Keywords: economic behavior; economic choice; decision-making criteria;risk;uncer tainty;probability theory; popular science lecture

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Publisher: Southern Federal University
Founder: Southern Federal University
ISSN: 2073-6606