Neuroeconomics: Hype or Hope? An Answer

In June of 2010, a special issue in the Journal of Economic Methodology was introduced with the question: “Neuroeconomics: Hype or Hope?” (Marchionni and Vromen, 2010). More than ten years later, it is time to provide an answer. Using a variety of sources ranging from Web of Science to EconLit, I assess the importance of neuroeconomics as a research program in economics. I show that after a rapid increase in interest in the early 2000s, neuroeconomics decreased in importance beginning in the 2010s, especially compared with the continuing rise of behavioral economics. Here, I explore a number of explanations for this decline in interest. Then, I compare neuroeconomics with behavioral economics to emphasize key points of divergence in how these programs were constructed at the frontiers of economics. Most notably, I show that neuroeconomists were more confrontational in their approach to economics, more focused on programmatic writings with few theoretical contributions, and importantly, more oriented towards neuroscience rather than economics.