Foreign Rights contact

This book explains how neuroscience, psychology and economic decisions are connected. It describes the latest research on the biological origins of the economic behaviour, and features some interesting interviews to oustanding scientists and economists.

Economic studies have been recently overcoming the traditional simplistic idea that there is a rational homo oeconomicus and have been considering human beings in a more realistic way, thus giving importance to the feelings that influence any decisions – hopes, fears, anxiety, optimism and so on.
This new approach to explain the economic behaviour believes that the heart and the brain are more influential than any algorithm, and that the personal benefit is established according to social factors and empathy, as the discovery of mirror neurons has shown.
The topics analysed by the authors range from psychology to neuroeconomics from neuromarketing to the difference between the sexes and to animal behaviour. They not only look into the premises of personal and everyday microeconomy, but also investigate the overall decisional mechanisms.

Introduction – The economic crisis. Why we need neuroeconomics
Chapter 1 – The history of the psychological study of economic behaviour
Chapter 2 – Bank account and emotions. The birth of neuromarketing
Chapter 3 – The difference between men and women in the economic behaviour
Chapter 4 – The relationship between will and wish
Chapter 5 – Macroeconomics and emotions
Chapter 6 – The origins of the economic behaviour: the studies on animals
Chapter 7 – The economic behaviour helps neuroscientists understand the brain functioning. The state of the art in neuroeconomics

Silvia Bencivelli is a free lance science writer with a background in medicine. She was awarded the Tommassetti Prize for science journalism in 2010. She currently works for the national radio channel Radio3 Science and several newspapers and magazines (Il Manifesto, Le Scienze, Mente e cervello) She wrote Why we like music (Sironi 2008, translated in French, English and Spanish).

Giordano Zevi is an economist. He studied and taught at the University of Minnesota (USA). He presently works for the “Servizio Studi” of the Banca d’Italia (the Italian Central Bank) where he is in charge of macroeconomics forecasting and industrial economy.