Economic Psychology
An Introduction

Economic Psychology is the only up-to-date, English-language textbook that provides a comprehensive overview of theoretical topics in economic psychology and their relevance in applied fields. Written by two leading psychologists, the book looks at how people make decisions on the use of scarce resources, in particular money, from a psychological perspective. Starting with decision making and lay theories as basic building blocks of economic behaviour, the authors go on to explore three major markets where economic behaviour occurs as an interaction between individuals and companies or institutions - consumer markets, labour markets and financial markets - before considering the challenges of collective cooperation and economic prosperity. Featuring numerous applied examples throughout, each chapter also includes an overview, a summary, figures, key terms, student questions and suggestions for further reading. This introduction is an essential resource for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate courses on economic psychology, behavioural economics and social psychology.

1. Economic psychology: history and application; 2. Decision-making: normative models and anomalies; 3. Decision-making: descriptive models and choice architecture; 4. Lay theories: knowledge and money; 5. Consumer markets: purchasing and credit use; 6. Labour markets: wages and entrepreneurship; 7. Financial markets: risk and investment; 8. Collective co-operation: shadow economy and tax paying; 9. Collective production: work and unemployment; 10. Collective prosperity: wealth and happiness.

Erich Kirchler is Professor of Economic Psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, Universität Wien, Austria. He is the author of many papers in edited collections and journals and of Conflict and Decision Making in Close Relationships (2001) and The Economic Psychology of Tax Behaviour (Cambridge, 2007), and was co-editor of the Journal of Economic Psychology, with Erik Hoelzl.
Erik Hoelzl is Professor of Economic and Social Psychology at the Faculty of Management, Economics and Social Sciences, Universität zu Köln. He has published many papers in edited collections and journals, for example in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, the International Journal of Psychology, and the Journal of Applied Psychology.