| Description |
lecturer - Prof. Dr. Holger Herz ************************************************
The neoclassical model constitutes the dominating paradigm within economics. One may say rightly so, as the model does a (surprisingly) good job at making qualitative predictions in a broad range of settings. And yet, quite often (and even predictably so) it fails to properly predict and explain human behavior. The field of behavioral economics addresses these systematic shortcomings of the neoclassical model, by “injecting good psychology and other social sciences”, as Nobel Laureate Richard Thaler puts it.
In this course, we will cover several of the key models which have emerged in the past 40 years or so and are increasingly pervasive within mainstream economics. In doing so, we will reflect on where the “standard model” falls short and where behavioral economics allows us to make better predictions. We will (aim to) cover the following topics:
1) The Past and Present of Behavioral Economics
2) Heuristics and Biases
2) Intertemporal preferences
3) Reference-dependent preferences
5) Social preferences
6) Motivated Beliefs
6) Cognitive foundations of economic decision making
In each topic, we will roughly follow the following structure: (A) identify anomalies, that is, evidence which is at odds with the standard model; (B) introduce behavioral theory and discuss it; (C) where appropriate, we will also highlight welfare implications of market and policy responses to “behavioral agents”.
The course emphasizes economic models, but will also cover experiments and empirical evidence when evaluating the behavioral models relative to the standard model. However, in order to go beyond the academic perspective, the plan is to invite guest lectures from different industries to highlight how behavioral economics is being applied in practice.
The course will not be based on a book, but “Behavioral Economics: Evidence, Theory, and Welfare” by Brandon Lehr can serve as a reference for additional reading.
***please note that in each week there will either be a 3 hours lecture or a 3 hrs exercise (usually every third week) ***
lecture: Tuesday, 09.15 - 12.00 hrs, A-122, UniS
Exercise with Severin Wildhaber (severin.wildhaber@unibe.ch): Tuesdays, 09.15-12.00 hrs, A-122, UniS
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due to high demand please note the following room distribution:
1. Exam: Tuesday, 28. May, 2024, 09.15 - 10.45 hrs
family names starting A - T please go to room A-122, UniS
family names starting U - Z please go to room D004, UniS
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2. Exam: Tuesday, 10 September 2024, 09.15 - 10.45 hrs, 114, H4
We will have a 90-minute written, closed-book final exam, which will be based on the lectures and the problem sets. The course grade will be based 100% on the final exam.
This course is aimed at students who would like to broaden their economic horizon and see how other fields, such as psychology, can enrich our economic understanding. An affinity to analytical work and economic models helps. Students should have a good understanding of the neoclassical model, that is, they should have an understanding at the level of a BA-level class on microeconomics (e.g., Mikroökonomie 1). This course is also open for master economic student |
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