Behavioral economics explicitly denies being a paradigm shift in economics

Evidence

If you asked behavioral economists what all this tinkering with conventional neoclassical utility functions was supposed to portend, they would tell you in no uncertain terms that so-called behavioral economics “is based not on a proposed paradigm shift in the basic approach of our field, but rather is a natural broadening of the field of economics … [it is] built on the premise that not only mainstream methods are great, but so too are mainstream economic assumptions.” — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 743

Categorization

• XREF: Reinforces the book’s core thesis about how orthodoxy absorbs criticism, linking to the ‘thought collective’ theme the reader is tracking. — connects to: Behavioral economists never intended to displace mainstream neoclassical orthodoxy — Philip Mirowski, Never Let a Serious Crisis Go to Waste, 741