Behavioral economics incorporates insights from psychology and sociology into economic models of decision-making. While traditional economic theory typically assumes individuals are self-interested and have an infinite ability to analyze and understand their decision-making environment, behavioral economics relaxes these assumptions in light of evidence from the field of experimental economics. Topics in the course include social preferences, mental accounting, decision-making under uncertainty and intertemporal choice. Additional topics may include the economics of social identity, preference formation and learning. Decision-making processes will be examined using simple economic experiments conducted in class.
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