BEHAVIORAL AND EXPERIMENTAL ECONOMICS 1

The main goal of this course is to provide an overview of the experimental methodology and a critical outline of some of the most active and influential areas of research in the field of behavioural economics, with a focus on the empirical methodologies adopted, on the theoretical implications of the findings, and on their possible applications.

At the end of the course, PhD students should have acquired knowledge of some of the most active and influential areas of research in behavioral economics and should have acquired a set of basic tools which are necessary to understand the existing experimental literature, and to assess the strengths and weaknesses of an experimental paper.

No prerequisite is required to attend the course.

Experimental and Behavioral Economics: Introduction

Design of Experiments in Economics & topics in Behavioural Economics: from the research question to the publication of the paper
• Between/within subjects design
• Strategy method vs. direct method
• Anonymity and Observability
• Beliefs Elicitation
• Power analysis: How many subjects/sessions per treatment?
• Writing and reading instructions: framing effects and priming.
• What is a good experiment? An application to dishonesty

Other-regarding preferences
• Model of other-regarding preferences
• Evidence of other-regarding preferences and their interactions with monetary incentives

Gender Economics & experiments

This course is based on academic papers (which are available online and in the moodle page) and lecture notes (slides). Additional suggestion: “Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis” (2015) by Sanjit Dhami.

• Individual presentation: 40% of the final mark. In the last two-three lectures of the course, each student will have to present and discuss an experimental paper on a topic of her interest: the proposed paper should be sent to Valeria Maggian at least 1 week before the student’s presentation. The presentation should last about 40 minutes including the discussion (30-35 minutes presentation and 5-10 minutes for questions). All students are expected to participate in the discussion.

• 60% of the final mark will be based on an assignment to be handled by the student a few weeks after the end of the course. In the assignment, students are asked to choose a topic of their interest (among those covered in class or any topic that meets the student’s research interests and can potentially help for their Ph.D. thesis) and will have to propose an experimental design meant to provide an answer to the proposed research question.

written and oral

Grades below C+ will be assigned in case of:
- sufficient abilities in handling the course content;
- limited ability design an experimental design to fit a research question ;
- sufficient ability to understand and present the basic motivation and experimental design of a paper.

Grades within B+ and B/C will be assigned in case of:
- discrete abilities in handling the course content;
- discrete ability in implementing the tools provided during the course in order to design an experimental project;
- discrete ability to present a paper, providing essential information on the motivation of the research question and on the experimental design and results.

Grades within A and A/B will be assigned in case of:
- good or optimal abilities in handling the course content;
- good or optimal ability to design an experiment that fits their research question
- optimal ability to present a paper, underlying some of the pros and cons of the experimental design chosen by the authors.

A+ is assigned when the student demonstrates excellent abilities in handling the course content, the ability to design an experiment that fits their research question, and critical thinking when presenting a paper.

This class consists of class lectures, discussions and in-class presentation and discussion of specific papers.
In the syllabus, there are three kinds of readings:
• Required readings.
• Optional readings that are useful to get a broader perspective of the topic discussed in each class.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Poverty and inequalities" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development