040075 UK Principles of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (BA) (2021S)

Knowledge in introductory microeconomics is highly recommended.

Content:

In this course, we will discuss the most important topics in Behavioral Economics and Experimental Economics. In Behavioral Economics, we study deviations from conventional rational Economics and apply the insights to relevant settings to better understand the issues at hand. Experimental economics adapts experimental methods developed in the natural sciences to study economic behavior. Experiments are valuable in empirically underpinning causal mechanisms, which can be obstructed in observational data.

Behavioral and Experimental Economics are vibrant and fast-growing fields of research in Economics. It continues to shed new light on many important issues in Economics. The fields have received wide recognition in recent years: many Nobel Prize laureates have contributed to these fields (Reinhard Selten 1994, George Akerlof 2001, Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith 2002, Elinor Ostrom in 2009, and Alvin Roth 2012, Robert Shiller 2013, Richard Thaler 2017, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo 2019).

In this course, we will discuss the most important topics in behavioral and experimental economics. By the end of the course you will have acquired:
1. a good intuition for behavioral deviations from conventional rational settings,
2. a toolbox for formalizing your intuitions using simple math representations,
3. an understanding of how to design experiments,
4. and hands-on experience in solving real-world problems using behavioral insights.

A preview of questions we will discuss in this course (the list is non-exhaustive):
• Why do people procrastinate? How can we combat procrastination?
• Why are some people overly confident despite feedback?
• Why are people altruistic? What makes them behave more selfishly?
• Are people equally willing to take risks?
• …
We will identify the anomalies causing the observed behavior and discuss their importance in economically relevant settings, such as education, finance, poverty, etc.

Aims:

When discussing these questions, we aim to be both practical and scholarly. The goal of the course is three-fold: We aim to
1. leave the students with take-away messages applicable to their understanding of the related problems;
2. provide the students with frameworks that help them to think about these questions rigorously;
3. emphasize the importance of causal inference and the role of experiments in this regard.

Methods:

This course is a combination of lectures, discussions, and student presentations. A list of references will be provided. While those readings are not mandatory readings they may support understanding the material covered in the lecture slides.