Universität Wien
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040075 UK Principles of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (BA) (2020S)

Track in Behavioral Economics and Experiments

8.00 ECTS (4.00 SWS), SPL 4 - Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Continuous assessment of course work

Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 50 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 05.03. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 06.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 13.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 19.03. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 20.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 26.03. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 27.03. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 02.04. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 03.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 23.04. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 24.04. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 30.04. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 07.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 08.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 14.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 15.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 22.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 28.05. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 29.05. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 04.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 05.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 12.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 18.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 19.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Thursday 25.06. 16:45 - 18:15 Hörsaal 12 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock
  • Friday 26.06. 15:00 - 16:30 Seminarraum 14 Oskar-Morgenstern-Platz 1 2.Stock

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

The course provides an overview on the most important topics in Behavioral and Experimental Economics. Behavioral economics attempts to make economics a more relevant and powerful science of human behavior by integrating insights from psychology and the social sciences into economics. Experimental economics adapts methods developed in the natural sciences to study economic behavior. Experiments are valuable in testing to what extent the integration of insights from other disciplines into economics is necessary and fruitful.

Behavioral and Experimental Economics is a vibrant field of research in economics and sheds new light on many old and important issues in economics. The field has received wide recognition in recent years, for example by the award of the Nobel Prize in Economics 2002 to Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith (the Nobel Prize winners Reinhard Selten 1994, Elinor Ostrom in 2009, and Alvin Roth 2012 have also importantly contributed to Experimental Economics; the winners George Akerlof 2001 and Robert Shiller 2013 have contributed to Behavioral Economics). The field is rapidly growing. While this course can therefore not completely review every aspect of the field, it nonetheless tries to present an overview of important topics.

In particular, the course will discuss the following topics:
• Introduction: Behavioral Economics & Experimental Method
• Individual Choice: Biases & Heuristics
• Markets and Strategic Thinking
• Fairness and Cooperation
• Happiness Economics

In discussing these topics, the course addresses the following main questions:
1) What are the advantages and limitations of the experimental method?
2) How important is it for economic outcomes that people may not be fully rational or strictly self-interested?
I will argue during the lectures that identifying individual-level “anomalies” (i.e. deviations from economic rationality) is not sufficient to demonstrate their economic and social importance. Instead, it must be analyzed how institutions mitigate and multiply these anomalies. A broad range of institutions, including markets, bargaining and voting is discussed.

Assessment and permitted materials

UPDATE: There will be a midterm exam (OPEN book - take home but with a narrow time constraint; English, 40 points of overall 100 points) and a final exam (OPEN book - take home but with a narrow time constraint, English, 40 points). In addition, 20 points can be gained by “participation” as discussed in more detail during the first class. This takes into account participation in one demo lab experiment (10 points) as well as participation (attendance and contributions) in normal/online lectures and participation in online questions in moodle (10 points).
In case there is a good reason (e.g. you are ill) and you inform me in advance that you will be missing one of the exams, I may decide to provide you with an additional task that replaces the exam.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

Notably, the sum of the score of midterm, final, and “participation” needs to be higher than 50 to pass the course.

Examination topics

Exams will be based on the material covered in the lectures slides. In addition, provided readings can be covered in the two exams as well, but only at the level discussed during the lectures

Reading list

A list of references will be provided during the first lecture. While those readings are not mandatory readings they may support the understanding of the material covered in the lecture slides.

Association in the course directory

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:19