Who are the Behavioral Economists and what do they say?

The most important financial source for behavioral economics is the Russell Sage
Foundation (RSF). The most prominent behavioral economists among the RSF’s twentysix
member Behavioral Economics Roundtable (BER) are Kahneman, Tversky, Thaler,
Camerer, Loewenstein, Rabin, and Laibson. The theoretical core of behavioral economics
made up of the work of these seven researchers is positioned in opposition to Adam
Smith/Hayek type of economics, as exemplified by experimental economists Vernon
Smith and Plott; and what is referred to as ‘mainstream’ or ‘traditional’ economics,
meaning the neoclassical economics that roughly builds on Samuelson. On the basis of an
overview of the work of these seven behavioral economists, a theoretical division can be
observed within behavioral economics. The first branch considers human decisionmaking
to be a problem of exogenous uncertainty, which can be analyzed with decision
theory. It employs traditional economics as a normative benchmark and favors a
normative-descriptive(-prescriptive) distinction for economics. The second branch
considers human decision-making to be a problem of strategic interaction, in which the
uncertainty is endogenous. Its main tool is game theory. It rejects traditional economics
both positively and normatively.