On the New Theory of Consumer Behavior

Abstract

This essay advocates a reformulation of the theory of consumer behavior, based on the household production function approach suggested in Becker's A Theory of the Allocation of Time [1]. The case for the reformulation rests, in part, on inadequacies of the traditional theory of choice, and more importantly, on the new approach's capacity to generate a wide range of cogent testable hypotheses and to provide the social scientist with tools relevant for understanding a broad spectrum of observed human behavior.