On Thu, 28 Jul 2005, Spencer J. Pack apparently wrote: > If economics is a theory of choice, then how is it > different from psychology? I do not know what 'theory' means here. Leaving that aside... If you define choice to mean rational choice (and not just an action interpreted as choosing), then some might say that microeconomists study choice and behavioral psychologists study behavior. (Let us not worry too much about the nature of 'rationality' or the meaning of 'behavior' right now.) Some might perhaps find it more natural to propose that microeconomists study rational action while behavioral psychologists study action. Either way, the puzzle remains why economists would restrict their permissible explanations relative to the field of behavioral psychology. It seems to me that efforts by economists to explore this puzzle have recently been bearing some nutritious fruit, as with the rise of behavioral economics. Cheers, Alan Isaac