Behavioral Economics in Action

Over the last 30 years, psychologists and economists have gained a deeper understanding of what motivates people, how they process information, and what non-economic features of the choice environment influence decisions. This seminar builds on this recent work of Behavioral Economics and allows the student to develop a hands-on approach and use behavioral economics to change people behavior. Emphasis will be on presenting and discussing specific topics in this literature: for instance, applications on health, education, dishonesty, environment, charitable giving, voting, saving and spending.

 

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Learning Objectives:

After completing the course, you should be able to:

Knowledge:	Review the most recent findings of behavioral economics and how to apply them to public policy.
Skills:	Identify the causes of a specific irrational behavior and analyze the consequences of this behavior for the society.
Competencies:	Design (or conduct) experiments and policy interventions aiming at ameliorate societal well-being and improve people’s life.

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Kick-off meeting: Monday August 31, 2020.

Please connect on my Zoom at 13:15. I will introduce the course (learning outcomes, deadlines, presentation days, expectations, etc.) and give you some advice). Here my slides and here a Google spreadsheet (more info during the meeting).

For those of you that are still looking for an idea, I suggest you give a look at my other two courses:

Economics of Misbehavior

Science of Behavior Change

Last semester I have also taught a course for PhD students that can be relevant for you too: Advice to Young Economists

Resources to improve your writing:

• Software ProWritingAid
• English Communication for Scientists (Nature)
• Writing tips from Monash University
• Scientific writing (Duke University)
• Cochrane’s writing tips (useful for writing Master and PhD theses)
• Mankiw’s advice on “how to write well” for a general audience
• The Economist style guide
• Some exercises to improve your writing
• Greene, A. E. (2013). Writing Science in Plain English.
• Williams’ Ten Principles for Writing Clearly
• Orwell’s Six Rules
• Revising your manuscript in 7 steps
• Nikolov, P. (2013). Writing Tips For Economics
• McCloskey, D. N. (2019). Economical Writing: Thirty-five Rules for Clear and Persuasive Prose.

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In what follows I want to share some interesting talks that I hope will inspire you for the choice of the topic.

There are many other intersting videos on differnt topics. If interested, you can start to watch this list.

Finally, a series of online lectures that may interest you