Economics & Psychology
- Course number: 10145700
- Level: Bachelor
- Semester: Winter
- Language: English
- Credits: 5 ECTS
About the course:
Why do people volunteer and donate to charitable causes? Why do they engage in costly punishment of unfair and anti-social behavior? Why do we often eat unhealthy food, exercise too little, and struggle with completing important tasks in a timely manner? Why do most people think that they are better-than-average drivers, entrepreneurs, lovers, ... ? From the perspective of conventional economic theory, these questions are difficult to explain. Economics & Psychology (aka Behavioral Economics) is an attempt to shed light on these and other puzzling phenomena. By enriching the traditional economic model with a psychologically more accurate foundation of human behavior, Economics & Psychology aims at improving the predictive power of economic models and the resulting policy recommendations.
In this course, we will discuss the psychological foundations of human behavior and their economic implications. We will present the empirical regularities that have inspired the development of Behavioral Economics, analyze the key theoretical models that have been brought forward, and discuss a number of applications where insights from Economics & Psychology have contributed to a better understanding of individual behavior and market outcomes.
