中国人民大学企业与组织研究中心

组织经济学Seminar

【2011F08】

组织经济学（Organizational Economics）Seminar由中国人民大学企业与组织研究中心（CFOS）主办。CFOS的宗旨是，利用现代经济学方法研究中国的企业、政府、市场和非营利组织的重大问题，推动企业理论、契约理论和制度经济学的研究与教学。关注CFOS，请访问http://CFOS.ruc.edu.cn。

时间：2012年1月4日（周三）12：00－13：30

地点：明德主楼729会议室

主持：聂辉华

主讲：赵小健

主题：Towards an Economic Theory of Consciousness

摘要：We apply the methodology of information economics in an intra-person multiple-self setting to model the relation between one’s economic wellbeing and state of consciousness, including amnesia and delusion, which may underpin some categories of mental (dis-)order. We posit the notion of semi-conscious choice in which the individual habituates into being “strategically” forgetful or delusional to enhance the motivation of one`s future selves. We endogenize the individual’s habituated state of cognitive error proneness in equilibrium from his attitude towards intertemporal discounting, including present bias. In our result, delusion and amnesia are substitute mechanisms. The emergence of delusion results from a severe present bias. However, the chance of having amnesia does not depend monotonically on the magnitude of present bias. The results are also confirmed by our experiment. We further study the ex ante welfare of the individual in relation to his equilibrated state of consciousness and offer it as an economic measure of his mental wellbeing. We provide a normative result that it is better to be normal than forgetful or delusional. A higher frequency of social interaction improves the mental well being for both normal and disordered individuals, and a high frequency of stressful events is harmful for one`s mental health.

演讲者简介：赵小健，现为香港科技大学经济学系助理教授。他于2010年获得德国曼海姆大学经济学博士学位，2005年在德国弗莱堡大学获得经济学与政治学硕士学位，已在Review of Economic Studies、Mathematical Social Sciences、Rationality and Society等知名国际刊物上发表论文多篇，主要研究领域为契约理论、信息经济学、经济学和心理学。

中国人民大学经济学院

人大企业与组织研究中心

2011年12月31日