ABSTRACT
Robinson Crusoe is the prototype of homo oeconomicus, the agent whose calculations provide the foundations not only of microeconomics but also of macroeconomics. At least since the so called marginalist revolution of the 1870s mainstream economists analyse specific areas of research with the tools of mathematical optimisation and utility maximisation. In recent years, the behaviour of economic agents has been described in more refined ways than simple utilitarianism guided by instrumental rationality (see Colander 2000:134-6). The 2002 Nobel Prize was awarded to Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith for their leading researches into the fields of psychological and experimental economics aimed at innovating ‘on the assumption of a homo oeconomicus motivated by self-interest and capable of rational decision making’ (available at https://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/2002/press.html). However, methodological individualism is still the leading method in economic analysis.
