L’espoir dans l’analyse économique : de l’approche psychologique à une conception transactionnelle et institutionnelle

Abstract

Emotions have been gradually integrated into economic analysis over the past thirty years. Hope, however, remains an emotion little mobilized by economists. None of the closely related concepts of common use in economics corresponds to the consensual definition found in psychology. By relying on notions such as expectations, aspirations, optimism, anticipations or even confidence, behavioral economics provides the first (admittedly insufficient) milestones for an economic theory of hope. By relying on the psychological theory of Richard Snyder, and comparing it to the transactional approach of John Dewey, we show that hope can be perceived as a mode of conduct capable of producing a transformation in individual behavior. By mobilizing the institutional theory of John Commons—and in particular the notion of “futurity”—it appears that the transactional conception of hope deepens the nature of anticipations in institutional theory.

Keywords

• Commons (John R.)
• Dewey (John)
• hope
• psychological theory
• behavior
• anticipation