Economics begins with a rational person. Yet economics has rarely asked how that person is formed.
For more than two centuries, economists have refined increasingly powerful theories of markets, incentives, institutions, and decision-making. From Adam Smith and Alfred Marshall to Keynes, institutional economics, and behavioral economics, each generation has expanded the discipline by asking new questions about economic life. The Economic Man argues that another frontier now awaits.
Every economic model begins with a chooser-a consumer, producer, entrepreneur, policymaker, or household. Yet economics seldom asks the question that comes before every economic decision:
How is the economic person formed?
Drawing on more than thirty years of teaching economics and decades of scholarly reflection, Professor Uwem Essia introduces Formative Economics-a proposed new branch of economics that investigates the formation of economic agency. In doing so, he presents what may be understood as the pre-micro foundations of economics: the human capacities that exist before markets, before exchange, and before rational choice itself.
This groundbreaking framework argues that judgment, trust, self-command, stewardship, cooperation, and long-term thinking are not merely psychological or moral concerns. They are foundational economic capacities that shape productivity, institutions, leadership, prosperity, and national development.
Inside, you'll discover:
- Why rational choice theory quietly assumes what it has never fully explained
- The concept of Economic Intelligence and how it shapes decision-making under scarcity
- Why households, schools, organizations, and communities are the first economies that form economic actors
- The theory of Formative Economics and its implications for research, education, development, and public policy
- How the pre-micro foundations of economics can broaden the discipline and expand the role of the economist
Rigorous, provocative, and deeply original, The Economic Man does not seek to replace modern economics. It seeks to extend it. Just as earlier generations broadened economics by incorporating institutions, development, and human behavior, this book proposes that the formation of the economic person deserves its own place within economic theory.
Whether or not readers ultimately accept every conclusion,
The Economic Man opens an important new conversation-one that invites economists, policymakers, educators, and researchers to reconsider where economics truly begins.
Because before people make economic choices, they must first become capable of making them.
And perhaps the next great advance in economics will begin there.
