ELEMENTS OF BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS IN THE WORKS OF ADAM SMITH

One of the most significant developments in economics over the last decades has been the growth of behavioral economics. It is not a unified theory, but rather a collection of ideas in opposition to the traditional economics (so called mainstream economics, neoclassical or ortodox). The purpose of the paper is to present Adam Smith's theory against a background of different concepts of contemporary behavioral economists. The basic subject of economics as a scientific theory is a human being. Homo sapiens is a creator of econosphere the global economic system consisting of billions of people and organizations which are multiplying achievements of our civilization. Therefore, at the core of any economic theory must be a theory of human behavior. The presented comparative analysis demonstrates an amazing convergence between A.Smith's theory and contemporary behavioral economics. Thus, the article supports opinion that present economics is returning to the roots of eighteen century classical economics. This reversion is supplemented by modern knowledge regarding complex evolutionary systems, psychology and sociology, and supported by the latest technical achievements of neuroeconomics allowing an insight into chemical and physical processes in a human brain. Thanks to that, economics is becoming an experimental science.