I'm reposting this, hoping for an answer. In economics, what uses does methodological individualism have in the actual attempt to understand the world (that is, beyond mere ideology)? I can think of two so far:
1) the free rider or collective action problem: it's really hard for a group of people to attain collective goals because some will be in it for themselves. 2) the "representative agent" model, in which macroeconomists lazily believe that looking at the effects of individual constraints and incentives tell us how aggregates of people behave. thanks ahead of time. -- Jim Devine / "The more you read and observe about this Politics thing, you got to admit that each party is worse than the other. The one that's out always looks the best." -- Will Rogers
