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ECON-S513

Behavioral economics

academic year
2024-2025

Course teacher(s)

Georg KIRCHSTEIGER (Coordinator)

ECTS credits

5

Language(s) of instruction

english

Course content

Standard microeconomic theory is based on two main assumptions: Rationality and selfishness. When actual behavior of economic agents - as observed in economic experiments or in the field - does not conform with economic theory, this behavior might either contradict the rationality assumption or the selfishness assumption (or both). The first part of the course is devoted to the analysis of non-selfish preferences. Based on experimental evidence, we present behavioral models of altruism, envy, fairness, and reciprocity, and show their impact on different economic problems. The second part of the course deals with boundedly rational behaviour and its impact on markets.

Objectives (and/or specific learning outcomes)

After the course the students should know the research frontier in (some subfields of) behavioral economics.

Prerequisites and Corequisites

Required and Corequired knowledge and skills

Knowledge of game theory and general equilibrium theory at the level of the course Graduate Microeconomics I.

Teaching methods and learning activities

lectures

Contribution to the teaching profile

This course contributes to the following program learning objectives:
LO 1.1 - Integrate sustainable development into problem analysis
LO 1.2 - Assess the quality of an economic research produced by others
LO 1.3 - Identify and analyse an issue using the relevant analytical tools and methods
LO 2.1 - Adopt a scientific approach to data collection, research and analysis and communicate results with clear, structured and sophisticated arguments
LO 2.2 - Display critical thinking and develop autonomous learning strategies and techniques
LO 3.2 - Thorough and critical ability to use empirical and statistical tools in economics
LO 4.1 - Work and communicate effectively as part of a team in an international and multicultural environment

References, bibliography, and recommended reading

see the extended course description on UV

Course notes

  • Université virtuelle

Other information

Contacts

gkirchst@ulb.ac.be

Campus

Solbosch

Evaluation

Method(s) of evaluation

  • Oral examination

Oral examination

Mark calculation method (including weighting of intermediary marks)

grade of the course = grade of the exam

Language(s) of evaluation

  • english

Programmes