Summer school 2021+2022: Behavioral and Experimental Economics

Course content

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 field is rapidly growing. This course can therefore not provide a comprehensive overview but concentrates on selected topics instead.

 

The course addresses the following questions: What are the advantages and limitations of experimental economics? How important are deviations from the assumptions of full rationality and strict self-interest in determining outcomes of economic interaction? It is argued that identifying individual-level “anomalies” 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.

Education

MSc programme in Economics – elective course

Bacheloruddannelsen i økonomi – valgfag efter 2. år

The Danish BSc programme in Economics - elective course after the 2.year

 

The PhD Programme in Economics at the Department of Economics:

  • The course is an elective course with research module. PhD students must contact the study administration AND the lecturer in order to register for the research module and write the research assignment.

 

Learning outcome

After completing the course the student is expected to be able to:

 

Knowledge:

  • Know how the toolbox of experimental economics can be used in research. They know how economic theory can be confronted with experimental data.

  • Participate in a series of demonstration experiments and therefore learn how experiments work in practice from the participants’ perspective.

  • Learn in what ways people systematically deviate from rational and self-interested behavior in individual decision making.

  • Learn in what ways markets and other forms of economic interaction can multiply or mitigate these biases. This knowledge is most relevant in the context of institutional choice or design (e.g. from an economic policy perspective).

  • Participate in a series of demonstration experiments and therefore learn how experiments work in practice from the participants’ perspective.

Skills:

  • Become critical consumers of the rapidly growing behavioral and experimental economics literature.

  • Recognize and avoide pitfalls in decision-making.

  • Write short papers to analyze experimental data and to reflect on the data and the experimental design. Students therefore improve their writing and reasoning skills.

Competencies:

  • Gain a deeper understanding of the basic principles of rationality and self-interest in economics. Students are therefore able to critically reflect the conventional wisdom in economics.

 

The course has three elements:
- Lectures: Discussion of selected examples of research in behavioral and experimental economics. Explaining the relevance of demonstration experiments and how the data compares to findings in the literature.
- Demonstration experiments. Students participate in demonstration experiments in our experimental laboratory.
- Assignments: Students analyze the data from the demonstration experiment (i.e. their own behavior) and reflect on possible explanations for observed behavior. Deadlines are strict (see handout). Detailed knowledge of the literature is not required at this stage.

Restrictions due to pandemic crisis:
The teaching in this course may be changed to be taught either fully or partly online due to a pandemic crisis like COVID-19. In case of changes and further information, please read the study messages in KUnet or the announcements in the course room on Absalon (for enrolled students).

A detailed Syllabus will be posted in Absalon and on    http://homepage.univie.ac.at/jean-robert.tyran/summer-school-at-ku.html . 

A sound knowledge of microeconomics and game theory as the course Microeconomics III at the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen or at a likely intermediate level is required (e.g. Varian: Intermediate Microeconomics, Gibbons: A Primer in Game Theory).

Schedule 2022:
Teaching: August 1st-5th, 8th-12th, 15th-19th from 10 AM to 1 PM
Experiments: August 2nd, 5th, 12th from 8 AM to 3 PM
Welcome reception: August 1st at 5PM

Teaching plan:
Week 1
Day 1: Introduction
Day 2: Experiments I
Day 3: Introduction
Day 4: Markets
Day 5: Experiments II + Hand in Assignment 1, not later than 10 AM

Week 2
Day 6: Loss aversion
Day 7: Biases in probability judgments + Hand in Assignment 2, not later than 10 AM
Day 8: Strategic complementarity and coordination
Day 9: Money illusion
Day 10: Experiments III

Week 3
Day 11: Fairness
Day 12: Fairness / Voting + Hand in Assignment 3, not later than 10 AM
Day 13: Voting
Day 14: Public Goods
Day 15: Public Goods / Q&A time

Timetable and venue:
To see the time and location of classroom please press the link under "Timetable"/​"Se skema" at the right side of this page.

You can find the similar information in English at
https:/​/​skema.ku.dk/​ku2223/​uk/​module.htm
-Select Department: “2200-Økonomisk Institut” (and wait for respond)
-Select Module:: “2200-B5-5F22; [Name of course]””
-Select Report Type: "List - Week Days"
-Select Period: “Efterår/Autumn – Week 31-5”
Press: “ View Timetable”

Please be aware:
- Please be aware that the workload of the summer school correspond to a fuldtime course at the Master programme in Economics, University of Copenhagen.
- It is not possible to change course after the last registration period has expired.
- The schedule of the lectures and the exercise classes can be changed without the participants´ acceptance. If this happens you can see the new schedule in your personal timetable at KUnet, in the app myUCPH and through the links in the right side and the link above.
- It is the students´s own responsibility continuously throughout the study to stay informed about their study, their teaching, their schedule, their exams etc. through the curriculum of the study programme, the study pages at KUnet, student messages, the course description, the Digital Exam portal, Absalon, the personal schema at KUnet and myUCPH app etc.

Written
Oral
Collective
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
ECTS
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Written examination, 2 hours under invigilation
in the exam venues of the University.

The exam assignment is given in English and must be answered in English.

Changes due to Coronavirus:
In the event that COVID-19 restrictions may affect the conduction of the ITX-exams, the written exam and the re-sit exam will be changed to a 2 hours take-home exam with all aids. If done so, the changes will be announced in study messages at KUnet and in the Digital Exam portal.

The take-home exam is an individual exam and it is not allowed to communicate with any one about the exam assignment nor the solution at all. It is also prohibited to distribute data and other information at all. If this or alike actions happens, it will be regarded as cheating and plagiarism.
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Aid
Without aids

for the written ITX-exam.

Information about allowed aids for the re-examination, please go to the section "Re-exam".

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Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
for the written exam. The exam may be chosen for external censorship by random check.
An oral re-examination may be with external assessment.
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Criteria for exam assessment

Students are assessed on the extent to which they master the learning outcome for the course.

 

In order to obtain the top grade “12”, the student must with no or only a few minor weaknesses be able to demonstrate an excellent performance displaying a high level of command of all aspects of the relevant material and can make use of the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes.

 

In order to obtain the passing grade “02”, the student must in a satisfactory way be able to demonstrate a minimal acceptable level of  the knowledge, skills and competencies listed in the learning outcomes.

Single subject courses (day)

  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 42
  • Preparation
  • 144
  • Practical exercises
  • 18
  • Exam
  • 2
  • English
  • 206