The Summer cohort deadline is March 23, 2025
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Behavioral Economics

How does our psychology influence the decisions we make every day and, ultimately, economic outcomes? This course explores the heuristics, or rules-of-thumb, our brain constantly employs to makes choices, and how in some instances they systematically backfire leading to biases in our decisions. You will be a participant in live experiments and learn how social scientists use them to study how people behave. Students will have the opportunity to explore interdisciplinary topics at the intersection of labor economics, game theory, microeconomics, behavioral economics, the impact of misinformation and media bias on markets, self-deception, immigration policies, risk aversion, data privacy, and more.

Pre-approved Topic List

  1. What behavioral principles should be used to design a pension scheme?
  2. What type of policies mitigate the bad consequences of unemployment?
  3. Design an insurance policy that is going to attract consumers by exploiting psychological biases.
  4. Humans are prone to errors when making decisions under uncertainty. How can modern technology reduce these errors?
  5. Pollution is a problem affecting most large metropolitan areas. How may insights from psychology inform urban policy to decrease pollution?
  6. Top students from disadvantaged backgrounds often do not apply to the best universities. What are the potential reasons and what kind of actions can be taken to change this?
  7. Doctors routinely make recommendations that may have life/death implications for their patients. How can biases in decision-making affect their advice?
  8. How can we increase the rate at which individuals recycle?
  9. Describe how psychological biases may affect judicial decisions and propose policy changes to minimize their negative impact.
  10. Delays in paying income tax lead to significant financial losses from governments. What design changes could be made to tax collection policy to minimize these delays?
  11. Buying a house is an infrequent transaction with large financial consequences. In what ways can a prospective house buyer or seller avoid mistakes due to psychological biases?
  12. A new type of fertilizer has been invented that increases crop yields by 300%. Nevertheless, farmers are not adopting it. What could be the reasons and what policies can be implemented to increase takeup?
  13. A major supermarket chain has hired you as a consultant to apply behavioral principles to improve their sales. Write a report with your recommendations.
  14. You are a financial advisor for a wealthy individual. Come up with an investment strategy that avoids pitfalls from biases in decision making.
  15. Develop an idea for a phone app that uses insights from behavioral economics to improve an individual’s health.