Paul Webley

Originally published in 1993, this book presents an alternative approach to the study of the emergence of economic awareness during childhood: a new developmental economic psychology!In the past, attempts to study the emergence of children’s economic consciousness have failed to take account of the practical nature of the "economic" in the history of western cultures. Economic socialisation has been seen as the acquisition of abstract knowledge about the institutions of adult economic culture. The child has been seen as a spectator, acquiring knowledge of that culture, but never really a part of it.However, economic actions, in essence, are directed not towards the attainment of knowledge, but rather towards the practical solution of problems of resource allocation imposed by constraint. Children, just like adults, are faced with practical problems of resource allocation. Their response to these problems may be different from those of adults but no less "economic" for that. This realisation forms the heart of this book. In it children are seen as both inhabitants of their own "playground" economic subculture and actors in the wider economic world of adults, solving, or attempting to solve, practical economic problems.In order to highlight this "child-centred" approach, the authors studied the way children tackle the particular problems posed by limitations of income. How do children learn (a) the relationship between choices available in the present and the future, (b) to spread their limited financial resources over time into the future and (c) about the strategies, such as banking, that allow them to protect those resources from threats and temptations? In short, how do children learn to save?This volume goes some way to answering these and related questions and in so doing sets up an alternative framework for the study of the emergence of economic awareness.

Originally published in 1993, this book presents an alternative approach to the study of the emergence of economic awareness during childhood: a new developmental economic psychology!In the past, attempts to study the emergence of children’s economic consciousness have failed to take account of the practical nature of the "economic" in the history of western cultures. Economic socialisation has been seen as the acquisition of abstract knowledge about the institutions of adult economic culture. The child has been seen as a spectator, acquiring knowledge of that culture, but never really a part of it.However, economic actions, in essence, are directed not towards the attainment of knowledge, but rather towards the practical solution of problems of resource allocation imposed by constraint. Children, just like adults, are faced with practical problems of resource allocation. Their response to these problems may be different from those of adults but no less "economic" for that. This realisation forms the heart of this book. In it children are seen as both inhabitants of their own "playground" economic subculture and actors in the wider economic world of adults, solving, or attempting to solve, practical economic problems.In order to highlight this "child-centred" approach, the authors studied the way children tackle the particular problems posed by limitations of income. How do children learn (a) the relationship between choices available in the present and the future, (b) to spread their limited financial resources over time into the future and (c) about the strategies, such as banking, that allow them to protect those resources from threats and temptations? In short, how do children learn to save?This volume goes some way to answering these and related questions and in so doing sets up an alternative framework for the study of the emergence of economic awareness.

From childhood through to adulthood, retirement and finally death, The Economic Psychology of Everyday Life uniquely explores the economic problems all individuals have to solve across the course of their lives.Webley, Burgoyne, Lea and Young begin by introducing the concept of economic behaviour and its study. They then examine the main economic issues faced at each life stage, including:* the impact of advertising on children* buying a first house and setting up home* changing family roles and gender-linked inequality* redundancy and unemployment* coping on a pension * obituaries, wills and inheritance.Finally they draw together the commonalties of economic problems across the lifespan, discuss generational and cultural changes in economic behaviour, and examine the significance of other, non-economic constraints, upon individuals.The Economic Psychology of Everyday Life provides a much-needed comprehensive and accessible guide to economic psychology which will be of great interest to researchers and students.

This unique, up-to-date volume features new essays by prominent economists and psychologists working at the frontiers of the subject. A number of these essays probe beliefs about rationality, consumer behaviour and expectations, while others assess psychological explanations of economic behaviour and the contribution of experimental economics.