Behavioral Economics: An Introduction (2023 Edition!)

Description

Incorporating insights from psychology in economics has come a long way since the 1950s. More recent Nobel laureates being recognized for their work in behavioral economics implies that the field is slowly, but surely coming into the mainstream and gaining acceptance.

Our course provides an overview of the discipline, covering its history, essential theories, core principles, applications, and critiques. This course is among the first one hosted online to tackle these subjects with the rigor of academia while balancing out its implications for public policy, business strategy, and everyday life. Starting off with the building blocks of modern behavioural economics such as prospect theory, we go into more detail on specific concepts and theories proposed by behavioural economists to explain risk-taking, trust, coordination, and time-discounting behaviour. We also outline key challenges that lie ahead for Behavioural Economics to address to remain an important and valuable approach to studying human behaviour.

This course was designed by Nikhil George (MA Economics, Mumbai U), Hansika Kapoor (PhD IIT Bombay in Cognitive Science, Fulbright Scholar), Aditya Nair (Briefkase, now UC Dublin MBA and Yale SOM Advanced Management), and Anirudh Tagat (MSc Econ, Warwick; PhD IITB-Monash in Econometrics) at Monk Prayogshala. We are grateful to Juhi Vajpayee for assistance in preparing course material.

What You Will Learn!

• Gain insight into an alternative approach of understanding decision-making by human agents.
• Incorporate a novel interdisciplinary approach, which combines economics and psychology into future academic endeavours
• Inculcate critical thinking within the realm of behavioural economics, and understand basic theoretical concepts of BE.
• Applying behavioural insights in their own work: academic research, implementing a policy, running a company, or selling a product

Who Should Attend!

• This is an introductory course to behavioural economics and is meant for students at the level of undergraduate, postgraduate, MPhil and PhD, and professionals or faculty members, or any person with basic understanding and interest in economics and/or psychology.
• Policymakers, business owners, consultants and other professionals with an interest in applying behavioural science to their work

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