Macroeconomic phenomena are the aggregated result of individual decision making. Behavioral macroeconomics approaches the study of these phenomena from a broad social science perspective, acknowledging the complexity of underlying human behavior and making use of an expansive repertory of  research methods.

George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller have been organizing conferences on macroeconomics and individual decision making (behavioral macroeconomics) since 1994. These conferences have been under the auspices of the National Bureau of Economic Research and have been supported by the Russell Sage Foundation from 1994-2004 and starting 2005 by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

[Illustration from Culver Service, New York City, 1888.]