Paradigm Change or Assimilation? The Case of Behavioral Economics

Abstract

In light of Thomas Kuhn’s view that paradigm change requires the existence of an alternative paradigm, this inquiry examines whether behavioral economics provides a foundation for change in economics. Drawing on Kuhn’s account of normal science that integrates science as a social system and a system of ideas, it critically examines the institutional and conceptual standing of behavioral economics relative to the mainstream paradigm and the alternative proposed by radical political economics with a view to assess the extent and the quality of change behavioral economics can impart to the dominant tradition of normal science in economics.