Simon, Herbert Alexander

▪ 2002

      American social scientist (b. June 15, 1916, Milwaukee, Wis.—d. Feb. 9, 2001, Pittsburgh, Pa.), was awarded the 1978 Nobel Prize for Economics for his theory of decision-making processes in economic organizations. Simon studied political science at the University of Chicago, where he received a B.A. in 1936 and a Ph.D. in 1943. After holding various administrative posts, he was appointed (1949) a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, where he helped form several departments and schools, including the Graduate School of Industrial Administration and the School of Computer Science. He was best known for a theory of corporate decision making known as behaviourism. In his book Administrative Behavior (1947), he sought to replace the highly simplified classical approach to economic modeling and its concept of the single decision-making, profit-maximizing entrepreneur with an approach to decision making that recognized a multiplicity of factors. According to Simon, this framework provided a more satisfactory theoretical approach for a world in which decision-making units were large enough for each one to have significant effects on prices and outputs. Crucial to this theory was the concept of satisfying behaviour—the achievement of acceptable levels of economic variables while keeping complications and risks at a minimum—as contrasted with the traditional emphasis on the achievement of maximum profits as the primary motivating factor. Simon's theory thus attempted to consider the psychological factors involved in decision making that classical economists tended not to take into account. Later in his career, Simon increasingly became involved in an attempt to create artificial intelligence by computer technology. He was the author of 27 books, including Models of My Life (1991), an autobiography.

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