To quote Etzioni:
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The suggestion that moral values and other factors that shape preferences are not the economists’ turf is but one more reason to factor a shift to codetermination theory, one that combines economics with elements of other social sciences, to develop socio-economics. This, in turn, requires a new praradigm that considers more than one fundamental source of valuations, more than one “utility”.
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Behavioral economics has changed the discourse on human behavior. It suggests that there is an integral link between a number of things, some of which are not directly discussed in economic theory:
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Culture – values and norms – of a community -
Preferences of needs and wants
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Decision making process
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Situation
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Personality
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Economic structure and forces
This makes the job of linking human happiness and values easier as well as difficult. On the one hand it suggests that in all economic situations people can live happily and for human happiness any minima for consumption or material development are not to be fixed but on the other hand its suggests that despite high level of consumption people can live unhappily. It also suggests that in theory it is possible for man and society to live happily for ever at levels of development which are not so destructive of natural and social environments.
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