Morris Altman
Biographic Data
| ID | 3704993 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Morris Altman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Morris |
| FAMILY NAME | Altman |
| SIGNATURE | ALTMAN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Dundee |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6779-6547 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 24 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 27 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1986 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
What Is Behavioural Economics
Inderscience is a global company, a dynamic leading independent journal publisher disseminates the latest research across the broad fields of science, engineering and technology; management, public and business administration; environment, ecological economics and sustainable development; computing, ICT and internet/web services, and related areas
What is behavioural economics
This article critically explores and interrogates the different core perspectives of behavioural economics. Behavioural economics is often framed by the heuristics-and-biases narrative, which views deviations from neoclassical norms as evidence of inherent irrationality. This perspective assumes individuals are intrinsically biased and error prone. In contrast, the bounded rationality approach rejects neoclassical norms as the gold standard and e…
Governing the gig economy
We examine how ownership and governance structures shape incentives, power relations, and strategic interaction in gig economy platforms. Using an institutional game-theoretic framework, we employ stylised games as a comparative heuristic to show how alternative governance arrangements stabilise different classes of outcomes, rather than serving as predictions under universal rationality assumptions. Investor-owned platforms tend to stabilise pow…
The Importance of Context for the Development of Labour Market Theory and Policy
Labour market theory underlies much of economic analysis with implications for theory and policy. I argue that conventional approaches to the labour market as well as more modern approaches represented by aspects of behavioural labour economics and Keynesian economics are often decontextualized from how individuals actually behave and the institutions affecting their behaviour. Building labour market models with empirically valid assumptions abou…
Why realism and methodological pluralism matter for robust research and public policy
Conventional economics maintains that a critical test of the veracity of robust economic theory is its capacity to generate plausible economic predictions, irrespective of the realism of the theories' underlying assumptions. This methodological argument even holds for relatively less conventional approaches to economics such as behavioural, heterodox, experimental, and institutional. Following upon research in behavioural economics, I argue that …
Implications of smart decision-making and heuristics for production theory and material welfare
Conventional theory assumes that economic agents perform at optimal levels of efficiency by definition and this is achieved when individuals behave in a particular fashion. Moreover, neoclassical production theory masks the process by which optimal output can be achieved. I argue that economic theory should be revised to incorporate some key findings of behavioural economics, while retaining the conventional theory’s normative ideal of optimum ou…
Economics (Micro, Macro Theory)
Definitions of micro‐ and macro‐economics are provided. The methodological backgrounds underpinning economics in general and micro‐ and macro‐economics specifically are also elaborated upon with their implications for economic analysis and public policy. Also outlined are the different and varied models that comprise the economics toolbox. These include traditional price theory, behavioral economics, institutional economics, Keynesian economics i…
K eynes, J ohn M aynard
Keynes's background is outlined as it relates to his scholarly and public policy contributions. The evolution of his thought is discussed, leading up to his penultimate contributions in his General Theory and his invention of modern macro‐economics. His fact‐based understanding of macro‐economic market failure and persistent involuntary unemployment is contrasted with the classical perspective that market forces restore full employment quickly an…
Policy Consequences of Multiple Equilibria and the Indeterminacy of Economic Outcomes in a Boundedly Rational World
In the conventional economic wisdom, the notion of unique equilibria that are efficient and Pareto optimal dominates the modeling discourse. Hebert Simon proposed an alternative analytical framework where the notion of multiple and sustainable equilibria is critical. Multiple equilibrium is the crucial stylized fact of economic life that requires better understanding and modeling. Of particular significance, Simon touched on the importance of ins…
Economic Growth and the High Wage Economy
This book provides a theoretical framework to better understand how firms, economies and labor markets have evolved. This is done in a reader-friendly fashion, without complex mathematical arguments and proofs. Economic Growth and the High Wage Economy shows how high wage economies help make firms and economies more productive and why high wage economies can be competitive even in an increasingly globalized environment. It also demonstrates why c…
The Living Wage, Economic Efficiency, and Socio-Economic Wellbeing in a Competitive Market Economy
Conventional economic wisdom views a Living Wage as costly in term of economic efficiency and competitiveness. I argue, based on x-efficiency theory, that higher wages need not cause any economic harm and can, on the contrary, generate higher levels of material wellbeing. Higher wages can be expected to induce x-efficiency and technological change cost offsets. In this context, an effective living wage, one that is above some subsistence minimum,…
Civil Society Theory
Community, Types of
Freedom to Choose and Choice X-inefficiencies
It is important to model choice behavior in a manner that captures the reality that choices made by individuals are often not utility maximizing or satisficing from the perspective of the person doing the choosing. If an individual’s choice behavior is not welfare maximizing, as it is always assumed to be in the traditional economics narrative, then the revealed preferences of individuals need not be a metric for the good life. Rather, choice beh…
The economics of ethics revisited and importance of economics
The ethical economy and competitive markets
The Nobel Prize in behavioral and experimental economics
Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith were the joint recipients of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics. Kahneman's work challenges the assumption that individuals behave in a manner consistent with conventional economic wisdom. He maintains that individuals tend to be systematically error prone and possibly irrational. Smith, on the other hand, developed experiments and experimental environments to test hypotheses emanating from the conventional economi…
Why Unemployment Insurance Might Not Only Be Good for the Soul, It Might Also Be Good for the Economy
Contrary to the conventional view that unemployment insurance serves to directly increase the rate of unemployment as well as reducing an economy's competitiveness by increasing the market wage of labor, the argument presented in this paper is that this worldview critically depends on unrealistic behavioral assumptions. A more realistic modeling suggests that unemployment rates need not rise and competitiveness need not deteriorate with the intro…
Staple theory and export‐led growth
The staple theory is a subset of the export‐led growth hypothesis, designed to explain the growth and economic development of resource‐rich economies. It is a theory that has been misunderstood and is seen to be at odds with the stylised facts of economic growth and development as well as with mainstream neoclassical wisdom. This article presents a brief and critical historiography of the staple theory from which a simple model of staple growth a…
Economic Growth and Income Equality
Morris Altman, Economic Growth and Income Equality: Implications of a Behavioural Model of Economic Growth for Public Policy, Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 29, Supplement: The Linkages between Economic Growth and Inequality (Jan., 2003), pp. S87-S118
When green isn't mean
A revisionist view of the economic implications of child labor regulations
The conventional neoclassical wisdom predicts that banning, restricting, or improving the working conditions of child labor will increase the costs of production, thereby diminishing the competitiveness of those jurisdictions that legislate against child labor. However, from a behavioral theoretical perspective this need not be the case when a productivity differential favoring adult labor exists which at least compensates for the pay differentia…
The Methodology of Economics and the Survival Principle Revisited and Revised
The focus of this paper is on the survival principle, as articulated by Milton Friedman, that dominates the methodology of the conventional wisdom either explicitly or implicitly. The survival principle is revised applying the behavioral approach to economics, which differs fundamentally with Friedman's methodology. This discussion is contextualized by a comparison of the different approaches to the modeling of economic agents and the substantive…
Labor Productivity in Late Nineteenth-Century Quebec and Ontario Manufacturing
(1995). Labor Productivity in Late Nineteenth-Century Quebec and Ontario Manufacturing: Explaining Ontario's Advantage. American Review of Canadian Studies: Vol. 25, No. 2-3, pp. 219-249
Economic development with high wages
Economic Growth in Canada, 1695-1739
B ) Y constructing rough approximations of constant dollar or real gross domestic product (RGDP) for early Canada (specifically the French colony in and about the St. Lawrence River Valley), I hope to provide a more solid foundation for an understanding of this colony's economic structure and evolution. At present, incoherent statistical and literary sources serve as the basis for most economic commentaries on early Canada. My constant dollar GDP…
The ethical economy and competitive markets
The Nobel Prize in behavioral and experimental economics
Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith were the joint recipients of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics. Kahneman's work challenges the assumption that individuals behave in a manner consistent with conventional economic wisdom. He maintains that individuals tend to be systematically error prone and possibly irrational. Smith, on the other hand, developed experiments and experimental environments to test hypotheses emanating from the conventional economi…
The Methodology of Economics and the Survival Principle Revisited and Revised
The focus of this paper is on the survival principle, as articulated by Milton Friedman, that dominates the methodology of the conventional wisdom either explicitly or implicitly. The survival principle is revised applying the behavioral approach to economics, which differs fundamentally with Friedman's methodology. This discussion is contextualized by a comparison of the different approaches to the modeling of economic agents and the substantive…
Policy Consequences of Multiple Equilibria and the Indeterminacy of Economic Outcomes in a Boundedly Rational World
In the conventional economic wisdom, the notion of unique equilibria that are efficient and Pareto optimal dominates the modeling discourse. Hebert Simon proposed an alternative analytical framework where the notion of multiple and sustainable equilibria is critical. Multiple equilibrium is the crucial stylized fact of economic life that requires better understanding and modeling. Of particular significance, Simon touched on the importance of ins…
Why Unemployment Insurance Might Not Only Be Good for the Soul, It Might Also Be Good for the Economy
Contrary to the conventional view that unemployment insurance serves to directly increase the rate of unemployment as well as reducing an economy's competitiveness by increasing the market wage of labor, the argument presented in this paper is that this worldview critically depends on unrealistic behavioral assumptions. A more realistic modeling suggests that unemployment rates need not rise and competitiveness need not deteriorate with the intro…
Economic Growth and Income Equality
Morris Altman, Economic Growth and Income Equality: Implications of a Behavioural Model of Economic Growth for Public Policy, Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 29, Supplement: The Linkages between Economic Growth and Inequality (Jan., 2003), pp. S87-S118
A revisionist view of the economic implications of child labor regulations
The conventional neoclassical wisdom predicts that banning, restricting, or improving the working conditions of child labor will increase the costs of production, thereby diminishing the competitiveness of those jurisdictions that legislate against child labor. However, from a behavioral theoretical perspective this need not be the case when a productivity differential favoring adult labor exists which at least compensates for the pay differentia…
Economic development with high wages
Resource Endowments and Location Theory in Economic History
The hypothesis that a region's or nation's laggard industrial development can be explained by its relatively more expensive supplies of coal and iron ore is challenged here. A simple model, based on location theory, is developed. Using this model, I demonstrate the conditions under which this hypothesis holds. A case study of Quebec and Ontario industry suggests that the differential resource cost hypothesis seriously lacks explanatory power
Resource Endowments and Location Theory in Economic History
The hypothesis that a region's or nation's laggard industrial development can be explained by its relatively more expensive supplies of coal and iron ore is challenged here. A simple model, based on location theory, is developed. Using this model, I demonstrate the conditions under which this hypothesis holds. A case study of Quebec and Ontario industry suggests that the differential resource cost hypothesis seriously lacks explanatory power
Economic development with high wages
Economic Growth in Canada, 1695-1739
B ) Y constructing rough approximations of constant dollar or real gross domestic product (RGDP) for early Canada (specifically the French colony in and about the St. Lawrence River Valley), I hope to provide a more solid foundation for an understanding of this colony's economic structure and evolution. At present, incoherent statistical and literary sources serve as the basis for most economic commentaries on early Canada. My constant dollar GDP…
Labor Productivity in Late Nineteenth-Century Quebec and Ontario Manufacturing
(1995). Labor Productivity in Late Nineteenth-Century Quebec and Ontario Manufacturing: Explaining Ontario's Advantage. American Review of Canadian Studies: Vol. 25, No. 2-3, pp. 219-249
The Methodology of Economics and the Survival Principle Revisited and Revised
The focus of this paper is on the survival principle, as articulated by Milton Friedman, that dominates the methodology of the conventional wisdom either explicitly or implicitly. The survival principle is revised applying the behavioral approach to economics, which differs fundamentally with Friedman's methodology. This discussion is contextualized by a comparison of the different approaches to the modeling of economic agents and the substantive…
When green isn't mean
A revisionist view of the economic implications of child labor regulations
The conventional neoclassical wisdom predicts that banning, restricting, or improving the working conditions of child labor will increase the costs of production, thereby diminishing the competitiveness of those jurisdictions that legislate against child labor. However, from a behavioral theoretical perspective this need not be the case when a productivity differential favoring adult labor exists which at least compensates for the pay differentia…
Staple theory and export‐led growth
The staple theory is a subset of the export‐led growth hypothesis, designed to explain the growth and economic development of resource‐rich economies. It is a theory that has been misunderstood and is seen to be at odds with the stylised facts of economic growth and development as well as with mainstream neoclassical wisdom. This article presents a brief and critical historiography of the staple theory from which a simple model of staple growth a…
Economic Growth and Income Equality
Morris Altman, Economic Growth and Income Equality: Implications of a Behavioural Model of Economic Growth for Public Policy, Canadian Public Policy / Analyse de Politiques, Vol. 29, Supplement: The Linkages between Economic Growth and Inequality (Jan., 2003), pp. S87-S118
The Nobel Prize in behavioral and experimental economics
Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith were the joint recipients of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics. Kahneman's work challenges the assumption that individuals behave in a manner consistent with conventional economic wisdom. He maintains that individuals tend to be systematically error prone and possibly irrational. Smith, on the other hand, developed experiments and experimental environments to test hypotheses emanating from the conventional economi…
Why Unemployment Insurance Might Not Only Be Good for the Soul, It Might Also Be Good for the Economy
Contrary to the conventional view that unemployment insurance serves to directly increase the rate of unemployment as well as reducing an economy's competitiveness by increasing the market wage of labor, the argument presented in this paper is that this worldview critically depends on unrealistic behavioral assumptions. A more realistic modeling suggests that unemployment rates need not rise and competitiveness need not deteriorate with the intro…
The economics of ethics revisited and importance of economics
The ethical economy and competitive markets
Civil Society Theory
Community, Types of
Freedom to Choose and Choice X-inefficiencies
It is important to model choice behavior in a manner that captures the reality that choices made by individuals are often not utility maximizing or satisficing from the perspective of the person doing the choosing. If an individual’s choice behavior is not welfare maximizing, as it is always assumed to be in the traditional economics narrative, then the revealed preferences of individuals need not be a metric for the good life. Rather, choice beh…
The Living Wage, Economic Efficiency, and Socio-Economic Wellbeing in a Competitive Market Economy
Conventional economic wisdom views a Living Wage as costly in term of economic efficiency and competitiveness. I argue, based on x-efficiency theory, that higher wages need not cause any economic harm and can, on the contrary, generate higher levels of material wellbeing. Higher wages can be expected to induce x-efficiency and technological change cost offsets. In this context, an effective living wage, one that is above some subsistence minimum,…
Economic Growth and the High Wage Economy
This book provides a theoretical framework to better understand how firms, economies and labor markets have evolved. This is done in a reader-friendly fashion, without complex mathematical arguments and proofs. Economic Growth and the High Wage Economy shows how high wage economies help make firms and economies more productive and why high wage economies can be competitive even in an increasingly globalized environment. It also demonstrates why c…
Policy Consequences of Multiple Equilibria and the Indeterminacy of Economic Outcomes in a Boundedly Rational World
In the conventional economic wisdom, the notion of unique equilibria that are efficient and Pareto optimal dominates the modeling discourse. Hebert Simon proposed an alternative analytical framework where the notion of multiple and sustainable equilibria is critical. Multiple equilibrium is the crucial stylized fact of economic life that requires better understanding and modeling. Of particular significance, Simon touched on the importance of ins…
Economics (Micro, Macro Theory)
Definitions of micro‐ and macro‐economics are provided. The methodological backgrounds underpinning economics in general and micro‐ and macro‐economics specifically are also elaborated upon with their implications for economic analysis and public policy. Also outlined are the different and varied models that comprise the economics toolbox. These include traditional price theory, behavioral economics, institutional economics, Keynesian economics i…
K eynes, J ohn M aynard
Keynes's background is outlined as it relates to his scholarly and public policy contributions. The evolution of his thought is discussed, leading up to his penultimate contributions in his General Theory and his invention of modern macro‐economics. His fact‐based understanding of macro‐economic market failure and persistent involuntary unemployment is contrasted with the classical perspective that market forces restore full employment quickly an…
Implications of smart decision-making and heuristics for production theory and material welfare
Conventional theory assumes that economic agents perform at optimal levels of efficiency by definition and this is achieved when individuals behave in a particular fashion. Moreover, neoclassical production theory masks the process by which optimal output can be achieved. I argue that economic theory should be revised to incorporate some key findings of behavioural economics, while retaining the conventional theory’s normative ideal of optimum ou…
Why realism and methodological pluralism matter for robust research and public policy
Conventional economics maintains that a critical test of the veracity of robust economic theory is its capacity to generate plausible economic predictions, irrespective of the realism of the theories' underlying assumptions. This methodological argument even holds for relatively less conventional approaches to economics such as behavioural, heterodox, experimental, and institutional. Following upon research in behavioural economics, I argue that …
The Importance of Context for the Development of Labour Market Theory and Policy
Labour market theory underlies much of economic analysis with implications for theory and policy. I argue that conventional approaches to the labour market as well as more modern approaches represented by aspects of behavioural labour economics and Keynesian economics are often decontextualized from how individuals actually behave and the institutions affecting their behaviour. Building labour market models with empirically valid assumptions abou…
What Is Behavioural Economics
Inderscience is a global company, a dynamic leading independent journal publisher disseminates the latest research across the broad fields of science, engineering and technology; management, public and business administration; environment, ecological economics and sustainable development; computing, ICT and internet/web services, and related areas
Economics (22 works) · Economic Theory and Institutions (11 works) · Microeconomics (10 works) · Positive economics (10 works) · Macroeconomics (9 works) · Neoclassical economics (9 works) · Economic theories and models (7 works) · Labour economics (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (5 works)