Actors, behaviours and decision processes

Learning Outcomes

This course is an introduction toa fast-expanding field of economics, psychology and economics or as it is oftenreferred to, behavioral economics. It is not an easy field to define, but thosewho sympathize with it tend to share the belief that economists should aspireto making assumptions about humans that are as realistic as possible, and hencethat we should develop methods and habits of mind to learn what ispsychologically realistic. The course also refers to literature and conceptsform sociology.

After completion of this course,students will –

§ Have basicknowledge of the main results from economic psychology, behavioral economics,experimental research, and economic sociology

§ Understandthe main issues of real-world and experimental designs

§ Be able toconduct an experiment on their own, and

§ Have basicknowledge of empirical methods used for the analysis of behavioral data

Course Delivery

Integrated lecture and discussionsessions on the following themes:

§ Judgmentunder uncertainty

§ Prospect theory

§ Mentalaccounting and consumer choice

§ Intertemporalchoice

§ Preferencereversal

§ Beliefs asgoods

§ Fairness

§ Emotions andeconomic theory

§ Learning

During classes, all students will be expectedto make a presentation that will constitute 40% of the overall grade. In thepresentations, you are required to present the details of your paper.

2 hour examtesting knowledge and understanding of the material and problems sets coveredin the course (60%).