ECON 0308 - Behavioral Economics

Credits: 3

All economics is "behavioral" in the sense of examining how people choose to act and allocate resources in different situations. In this course, we use the word "behavioral" to describe a branch of economics dedicated to using an interdisciplinary approach to explain behavior anomalous to the standard model of economic rationality. The traditional economic model is based largely on two assumptions: consumers/producers make decisions consistent with expected utility/profit maximization and in the absence of government intervention markets will clear (equilibrium). There are a number of empirical anomalies that this standard model fails to explain. This course will address those anomalies and other cognitive biases often overlooked in traditional economic models assuming rationality.

Corequisite: ECON 0102.

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