Behavioural Compatibility between Individual Choice and Collective Action

在经济和社会生活中，好的个人选择加起来就是社会的糟糕选择的例子很多。2009年的金融危机可以用以下几个术语来理解：单个银行家可能希望向高风险客户发放贷款是有利可图的，但银行家集体发放高风险贷款会导致系统性市场崩溃，所有人都会蒙受损失。在大气二氧化碳积累的背后也存在着类似的故事，在这种情况下，每个公司或个人燃烧化石燃料是有意义的，但在全球层面上却没有意义。这些情况有传统的经济模型，但最近的研究，包括数量和技术经济研究所(IQTE)和税务管理研究中心(TARC)的工作，表明了心理和文化因素在指导决策方面的重要性。行为经济学的出现，以及由此导致的对个人选择的看法的改变，使我们迫切需要在新的范式下重新审视个人选择和社会结果之间的联系。资金申请将用于支持研讨会、大师班、访客交流，以及IQTE、中国和英国TARC合作开展的联合研究计划。该伙伴关系的活动旨在融合这两个组织的专业知识。TARC在应用计算机模拟个人行为来模拟社会结果方面拥有相当多的专业知识。它还拥有实验经济学方面的专门能力，随时可以接触到大量的实验对象，并有能力使用在线实验来针对人口的特定部分。TARC还在发展可计算一般均衡的能力。IQTE是中国社会科学院最重要的部门之一。它就像一个“智囊团”，支持国家在财政(税收)和金融政策方面的决策。它在经济问题的数学建模方面非常熟练，在计算机模拟和实验方面也具有广泛的能力。在这两个研究所，研究的重点一直是探索真正的政策问题，以促进经济发展和社会福利。该研究方案将发展IQTE和TARC在将一系列研究方法应用于政策问题方面的经验。通过更好地对个人或“微观”决策进行建模，从而提高对社会或“宏观”结果的理解，这一基本主题将为个别研究项目提供支持。选定的研究项目在中国和英国都具有政策相关性，包括在金融部门实施增值税、减少贫困和减少不平等、投资者行为和资本市场的出现。研究结果将传达给中国和英国的政策制定者，以实现政策影响，并传达给世界各地的学者，从而获得国际影响。

There are many instances in economic and social life where good individual choices add up to poor choices for society. The financial crisis of 2009 can be understood in these terms: an individual banker may expect it to be profitable to grant a loan to a risky customer, but bankers collectively granting risky loans leads to systemic market collapse and a loss for all. A similar story lies behind the accumulation of atmospheric carbon dioxide where it makes sense for each firm or individual to burn fossil fuels but it does not make sense at global level. There are traditional economic models of these situations but recent research, including work at the Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics (IQTE) and at the Tax Administration Research Centre (TARC), has shown the importance of psychological and cultural factors in guiding decisions. The emergence of behavioural economics, and the changed perspective on individual choice that has resulted, gives a pressing need to re-examine the links between individual choices and social outcomes within the new paradigm.The application for funding will support workshops, masterclasses, visitor exchange, and a joint research programme of a partnership between the IQTE, China, and TARC, UK. The activities of the partnership are designed to merge the expertise of the two organisations. TARC has considerable expertise in applying computer simulations of individual behaviour to model social outcomes. It also has specialized capability in experimental economics with ready access to a large body of experimental subjects and capability in using online experiments to target specific sectors of the population. TARC is also developing competence in computable general equilibrium. IQTE is one of most important departments in the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It acts as a "think tank" to support state decisions on fiscal (tax) and financial policy-making. It is highly skilled in the mathematical modelling of economic problems and also has extensive capabilities in computer simulation and experimentation. In both research institutes the focus of research has been exploring real policy problems to enhance economic development and social welfare. The research programme will develop the experience of IQTE and TARC in applying a range of research methods to policy problems. The underlying theme of an improved understanding of the social, or "macro", outcome by better modelling of individual, or "micro", decisions will underpin the individual research projects. The selected research projects have policy relevance in both China and the UK and include implementing VAT in the financial sector, poverty reduction and the reduction of inequality, and investor behaviour and emergence of capital markets. The results of the research will be communicated to policy-makers in China and in the UK so that policy impact is achieved, and to academics worldwide so the international impact is obtained.