ABSTRACT
Starting from the basis model, which everyone knows and is taught in every introductory course in economics, Gary Stanley Becker extends the theory of utility from its original economic field to all human behaviour. He generalizes the use of the assumptions that sustain the definition of homo economicus in order to explain human action in general. This process of extension goes beyond the original framework of consumer preferences in the theory of prices to define his economic approach to human behaviour. Becker's work is, therefore, the development of the neoclassical paradigm taken to its ultimate consequences. The chapter focuses on three stages of the economic analysis of human behaviour: the application of the neoclassical model in atypical fields of study; consolidation of the theoretical framework; and the latest technical developments. Becker's forward-looking behaviour is a very special view of the historicity of the person.
