ECON4260 – Behavioral Economics
Schedule, syllabus and examination date
Course content
This course provides an overview of behavioral economics. Behavioral economics incorporates descriptively accurate assumptions about cognitive ability, social interaction, moral motivation, and emotional responses into economic modeling and explores the implications of this for human behavior and economic outcomes. These assumptions are often motivated by empirical findings in psychology, sociology and related disciplines, as well as the field of experimental economics. Behavioral economics seeks to generate theoretical insights, make more accurate predictions of field phenomena, and suggest welfare improving policies.
Main topics:
- behavioral decision theory
- time inconsistency and self-control
- social preferences and fairness
Learning outcome
Knowledge:
You should
- become familiar with selected important contributions to behavioral economics
- understand the relevance of these contributions for analysis of economic behavior
- in particular, understand under what conditions and in what ways these contributions may substantially alter predictions and/or policy recommendations based on previous economic models
Skills:
You should
- be able to critically assess the importance of these contributions for the understanding of economic behavior, in particular, be able to discuss th