When Herbert A. Simon was elected as a distinguished fellow of the American Economic Association, they recognised that he was more than an economist; thus they noted in the subsequent announcement: ‘How remarkable it is that Herbert Simon has made significant contributions to every one of the major social sciences. Few can equal his contributions to economics, even though only a small fraction of his time has been dedicated to that subject. Economics in particular, as well as the other social sciences, has benefited greatly from Simon's unique abilities to synthesize, to cut across and link important but otherwise disjoint intellectual traditions.' Simon's instinct for interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary research was developed early. Born in 1916, Simon attended the University of Chicago in the 1930s, and, although he graduated in political science (refusing to take the class in accounting which was required to graduate in economics), Simon attended as many economics classes as political science ones. In addition, he was fascinated by classes in logic (with Rudolph Carnap) and in mathematical biophysics (with Nicolas Rashevsky). Hence, it is no surprise that Simon's dissertation, later published as Administrative Behavior is as relevant to political science and even to organisation theory, as it is to economics. The book is now in its fourth edition, and includes in addition to the original manuscript, also, Simon's comments on the topics of each chapter, linking them to recent developments in economics and organisation theory. It also includes a new introduction explaining the centrality of the major issue of the book: understanding decision making in organisations. Administrative Behavior, according to Simon, is not only for organisation watchers and organisation designers; since organisations are so central to the modern economy and, indeed, to all our lives, the book, he says, is for ‘Everyperson' (page viii).
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