nep-neu New Economics Papers
on Neuroeconomics
Issue of 2025–04–14
two papers chosen by
Daniel Houser, George Mason University
  1. The Effect of Compulsory Education on non-Cognitive Skills: Evidence from Low- and Middle-Income Countries By Antonia K. Entorf; Thomas J. Dohmen
  2. Quantum Neuroscience, Subjective Preferences, and Stock Market Dynamics: A Unified Framework By Heng-fu Zou
  1. By: Antonia K. Entorf; Thomas J. Dohmen
    Abstract: Personality traits, preferences, and attitudes significantly influence labor market outcomes, and these non‐cognitive skills are shaped by the social environment. While curriculum interventions can impact these skills, the effect of compulsory education on noncognitive skills is less well understood. This study investigates the impact of extending compulsory education by examining educational reforms in four low‐ and middle‐income countries. Utilizing cross‐sectional data from the World Bank’s 2012/2013 initiative, we analyze the within‐country variation in compulsory education years. Our findings indicate that increased compulsory education decreases emotional stability, grit, hostile attribution bias, patience, and willingness to take risks, while enhancing openness to experience and alternative solution or consequential thinking.
    Keywords: Non‐cognitive skills, Education, Wage returns, Personality, Economic preferences
    JEL: J24 I20 I26 D91
    Date: 2025–03
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2025_674
  2. By: Heng-fu Zou
    Abstract: This paper develops a unified framework linking subjective preferences, stock market behavior, and quantum neuroscience, arguing that financial decision-making originates in quantum cognitive processes rather than classical neural determinism. Preferences, judgments, and ideas are modeled as quantum states evolving within a cognitive Hilbert space, governed by a preference Hamiltonian. These quantum states—subject to superposition, tunneling, entanglement, and uncertainty—explain why investor behavior is inherently probabilistic, context-dependent, and often non-rational. Market prices emerge as observable outcomes of wavefunction collapse across interacting agents, while crashes and bubbles are modeled through quantum tunneling and collective decoherence. We derive a quantum uncertainty principle showing that evaluation volatility and risk perception are fundamentally bounded. Anomalies observed in behavioral and experimental economics, including framing effects and preference reversals, are explained through non-commuting cognitive operators and dynamic, operator-valued utilities. This framework reinterprets market irrationality as a natural consequence of quantum consciousness and provides a rigorous, empirically consistent theory of financial behavior.
    Date: 2025–04–01
    URL: https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:cuf:wpaper:752
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