rotation mode

Please create access to Microsoft Teams before the first lesson. Microsoft Teams is used flexibly, either at the lecturer's desk in the lecture room (or - if it is not allowed to enter the lecture rooms - in the home office). The screen of the lecturer's desk is shared between the students in the lecture room and those at home. For the students in the lecture room, the lecturer's PC projects onto the whiteboard; students at home need their own laptop (tablet), with which MS-Teams can share the screen. The sound is transmitted from the lecture room via a microphone to the students in the home office.

The course takes place synchronously; it is not intended to record the units for asynchronous use.

If you are not subject to travel restrictions, attendance is mandatory (either in the lecture room or remotely via MS-Teams) on specified dates. Please expect that – most likely – you will have to be present in the lecture room every second meeting. Depending on the Corona situation, the meetings with physical attendance will be announced shortly before the course begins.

This mode is very flexible and the presence in the lecture room can vary between 0% - 100%.

Only if you are subject to travel restrictions can you take part in the course in remote mode.

Understanding people’s motivations (altruism, reciprocity, inequality aversion as well as self-interest) is essential to being able to predict economic behavior. Experiments are a tool so that people’s behavior can be observed under controlled conditions. In this course, we develop and deepen students’ understanding of the experimental method of investigation in economics. Furthermore, we survey research which incorporates behavioral and psychological evidence into economics based on empirical observations from the lab and from the field. We also consider the implications of the modified models for market outcomes and public policy. Topics include (but are not limited to) fairness, altruism, and reciprocity; preferences for redistribution; heuristics and cognitive biases; nudging; and social identity.

Students will learn how experiments do help us understand the real economic world. They will be familiar with aspects of design, implementation, and evaluation of experiments, enabling them to elaborate, implement, and analyze an experiment in the lab or in the field. Students will learn how psychological, cognitive, and social factors affect the economic decisions of individuals and institutions, the consequences of such factors for market outcomes, efficiency and allocations, and their policy relevance.

Attendance is compulsory. Students are required to attend 80% of the total amount of class contact hours.

This is a parallel seminar to the Specialization Course in Behavioral and Experimental Economics. While the Specialization Course deals more with the subject matter of behavioral economics, the Research & Policy Seminar focuses on the key methodological and conceptual issues of experimental economics. Students will work on individual experimental pilot projects. Students can decide to base their project on an existing research paper and a variation of the original design, to develop their own ideas, or to work on a topic proposed to them.

Grading will rely on in-class presentations and a research paper. The first presentation will be on the research question and the experimental idea; the second presentation will be on the final experimental design. The presentations each will be marked with a weight of 15%. The weight of the research paper towards the final mark will be 70%, since it represents the sum of all efforts made during the overall course. Marking will be based on proficiency in tools and methods, as well as creativity, innovation, logic and justification of arguments.

Knowledge of microeconomics and statistical (econometric) methods
Students are expected to take the lecture “Specialization: Behavioral and Experimental Economics” (or to have taken this lecture in the previous year).