Behavioral Economics

Behavioral Economics (BE) studies the effects of psychological, cognitive, emotional, cultural and social factors on the economic decisions of individuals and institutions. Our objective is to create an environment for you to learn about the principles of Behavioral Economics and understand how they can be used to nudge behavior in a desired direction. Behavioral Economics is therefore strongly related to policy and this quarter we plan to write a policy proposal that examines how we can use behavioral economics tools to achieve policy objectives in the areas of gun control, obesity, etc. We plan to start off the year with reading and analyzing papers so that you can grab some major Behavioral Economics concepts, including framing, choice environment, nudging, prospect theory, and more. Besides this, we will be looking at BE applications related to policy in preparation for our final project. Please consider joining us if you are interested in Behavioral Economics, want to do research, or simply want to know what BE is!