The Scottish independence referendum has finally taken place with a comfortable majority voting no to independence. The result is, however, somewhat bizarrely being interpreted as a 'clear call' for greater devolution. Why bizarre? We have gone from four million Scots being asked a yes, no question 'should Scotland be an independent country' to the conclusion that a majority of the sixty million people in the UK want greater devolution to the regions, and they want it before March 2015! Surely there is not a better way to judge the 'will of the people'? The answer, unfortunately, is 'probably not'. And the main reason why is the difficulty of making inter-personal utility comparisons. What we have here is a problem of collective choice. A single decision has to be made, e.g. Scotland becomes independent or it does not, but that decision will affect many . Some people stand to benefit a lot from independence and some stand to lose a lot from in
Some random thoughts on game theory, behavioural economics, and human behaviour