March, 1978

James March wrote in 1978, "Prescriptive theories of choice are dedicated to perfecting the intelligence of human action by imagining that action stems from reason and by improving the technology of decision. Descriptive theories of choice are dedicated to perfecting the understanding of human action by imagining that action makes sense. Not all behavior makes sense; some of it is unreasonable. Not all decision technology is intelligent; some of it is foolish." (p. 604)

from March, J. G. "Bounded Rationality, Ambiguity, and the Engineering of Choice", Bell Journal of Economics, Vol. 9, 1978, pp. 587-608.

appeared in DSS News, January 28, 2001, Vol. 2, No. 3