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Abstract

Starting from the assumption that decision situations in economic contexts are
characterized by fundamental uncertainty, this article argues that the decision-making of
intentionally rational actors is anchored in fictions. “Fictionality” in economic action is
the inhabitation in the mind of an imagined future state of the world and the beliefs in
causalmechanisms leading to this future state.Actors aremotivated in their actions by the
imagined future and organize their activities based on thesemental representations. Since
these representations are not confined to empirical reality, fictional expectations are also a
source of creativity in the economy. Fictionality opens up a way to an understanding of
the microfoundations of the dynamics of the economy. The article develops the notion of
fictional expectations. It discusses the role of fictional expectations for the dynamics of
the economy and addresses the question of how fictional expectations motivate action.
The last part relates the notion of fiction to calculation and social macrostructures,
especially institutions and cultural frames. The conclusion hints at the research program developing from the concept of fictional expectations.