Behavioral and Experimental Economics

Purpose of the course The course introduces to developments in experimental economics and in behavioral models of decision making. It also aims at teaching how to run experiments in the lab.
The course has two parts. The first part deals with individual behavior and its experiemntal study. Applications to marketing, finance and organizational behavior are developed.
The second part reconsiders basic concepts of strategic interaction in game theory in the light of the experimental evidence on interactive behavior and explores alernative behavioral models of interactive strategic choice. Applications to negotiation, labor contracts, trust and incentives are developed.

Prerequisites Students are expected to have basic notions of expected utility theory and some familiarity with the basic concepts of game theory.

Part I: Individual behavior
• Expected utility: biases and violations
• Bias in probabilistic reasoning
• Time and decision making
• Some alternatives to expected utility. Prospect theory; Regret theory; Experimental evidence on non-EU models.
• The allocation of attention
• Applications: consumer behavior, investor behavior, medical decision making; policy implications of behavioral analysis ...
Intermezzo: runing lab experiments
Part II: Interactive decision making
• Strategic reasoning in games and its critique. (Dominance and iterated dominance; Backward induction and sub-game perfect equilibria).
• A model of bounded rationality with limited reasoning steps: the “Cognitive Hierarchy” model
• Learning in interaction
• Motivation and fairness. Inequality aversion. Fairness equilibria. Cooperation in public goods and in the commons.
• Applications: bargaining; understanding labour contracts; market entry; trust; incentives

The teacher will distribute a readings package at the beginnign of the course.

Evaluation will be based on class participation (20%), a written exam (40%) and an experiemntal project (40%)

Teaching method There will be fifteen lectures on experimental methods and results, and basic models of behavioral economics; the course will include laboratory sessions to introduce students to experimental practice. Studnets will have to design and run an experiment.

Inglese

Accessibilità, Disabilità e Inclusione
Accomodamenti e Servizi di Supporto per studenti con disabilità o con disturbi specifici dell’apprendimento

Ca’ Foscari applica la Legge Italiana (Legge 17/1999; Legge 170/2010) per i servizi di supporto e di accomodamento disponibili agli studenti con disabilità o con disturbi specifici dell’apprendimento. Se hai una disabilità motoria, visiva, dell’udito o altre disabilità (Legge 17/1999) o un disturbo specifico dell’apprendimento (Legge 170/2010) e richiedi supporto (assistenza in aula, ausili tecnologici per lo svolgimento di esami o esami individualizzati, materiale in formato accessibile, recupero appunti, tutorato specialistico a supporto dello studio, interpreti o altro) contatta l’ufficio Disabilità e DSA disabilita@unive.it.

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