ECO 72900 - Behavioral Economics

This is a Masters level course in behavioral economics (also known as: economics and psychology). You will be introduced to several topics in this new and exciting field. The main objective of behavioral economics is to modify existing models of economic decision-making using results from experiments in economics and psychology. We will continue to use the methodology of economics, but we will ‘tweak’ the models to make them more realistic. We will then use these models to try and predict behavior in various settings, from standard economic ones (like consumption-saving decisions) to non-economic ones (like deciding when to go to the gym). Some examples of topics to be studied: procrastination, altruism, gambling, and self-control.

prereq: ECO 70100 (MA Microeconomic Theory) or equivalent
Hours 3 hrs.
Credits 3 cr.