Abstract

Behavioral economics has in recent decades emerged as a prominent set of methodological developments that have attracted considerable attention both within and outside the economics profession. The time is therefore auspicious to assess behavioral contributions to particular subfields of economics such as labor economics. With empirical validity among its chief objectives, one might guess that behavioral economics would have made its clearest mark in data-driven subfields such as labor economics. Theoretical subfields, however, have led much of the recent behavioral movement, drawing on laboratory data for its empirical basis as opposed to the large panels of field observations common in labor economics.