Behavioural Economics (2235.YR.014060.2)

General information

Type:	OPT	Curs:	1,2,3,4	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	3 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 1	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad	ENG

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 2	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad	ENG

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 3	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad	ENG

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 4	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad	ENG

Motivation.

Knowledge about basic mathematics, statistics and microeconomic concepts.

20% in class
30% team work
50% readings, preparation and individual study

This course contributes in understanding human economic behaviour. Neoclassical economic models traditionally abstracted from insights from other social sciences, such as psychology or sociology. This course aims to question the rationality assumption, and generate interesting insights on human behavior and motivations. In addition, participants will be exposed to experiments that uncover how individuals, firms, markets, and other decision makers behave in a variety of settings.

In this course you will learn the main findings of behavioural economics including reference dependent preferences, choice under uncertainty, other regarding preferences, time discounting, behavioral strategic interaction, learning, heuristics, etc. We will read key articles to learn how these findings were discovered, but simultaneously, how to design, conduct and analyse experiments so that organizations and policy makers can benefit achieve better decision making based on causal evidence.

By the end of the course, students are expected to be able to:

- Understand the behavioural assumptions made in neoclassical economic models and how these are related to actual human behaviour.
- Design incentive schemes that are consistent with the behavioural traits.
- Understand the concept of causality and the power of experiments in establishing causal relations.
- Design economic experiments and appropriately interpret their results.
- Think about applications of experimental and behavioural economics in business environments and public policy.

1. Introduction to Behavioral and Experimental Economics Introduction and logistics. What is Behavioural Economics? How did the discipline come about? Economics meets Psychology. Experiments: Explaining causal relationships. Anatomy of an experiment. Challenges of design and implementation. Application to real-life situations.

2. Understanding human preferences and choices Cognitive biases and heuristics. Risk aversion and intertemporal decisions: A behavioural approach. Other-regarding preferences.

3. Understanding human expectations

4. Policy and business applications of Behavioural Economics Behavioral economics and public policy. Case study: Behavioral Insights Team. Behavioral economics in technological firms. Other applications of behavioural economics: sports, etc.

The course is based on a combination of readings, lectures, class discussions and debates, student presentations and projects.

ASSESSMENT BREAKDOWN

The main reference texts for this course are:
Akerlof, G. A., & Shiller, R. J. (2010). Animal spirits: How human psychology drives the economy, and why it matters for global capitalism. Princeton university press.
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Luca, Michael, and Max Bazerman. The Power of Experiments: Decision-Making in a Data-Driven World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press
Thaler, R. H. (2015). Misbehaving: The making of behavioral economics. W W Norton & Co.

Moreover, students will have to read some selected articles on Behavioural and Experimental Economics.

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 1	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 2	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 3	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 4	Anna Bayona Font	Economía, Finanzas y Contabilidad