B1431 - STRATEGY, BEHAVIOR, AND POLICY IN ECONOMICS

Learning outcomes

The course has three main objectives: (i) explain how economists learn from empirical evidence, and how lab, field, and natural experiments can help establishing causation; (ii) teach the intuition behind some intermediate game theoretical concepts; (iii) show a wide range of applications and topics in economics

Course contents

Overview: The course will provide a broad range of examples on how economic theory and lab/field experiments can be used to understand pressing societal problems as well as to inform governments, firms, and consumers. The applications will range from media bias to environmental conservation, from discrimination to education and social housing.

Objectives: The course has three main objectives: (i) explain how economists learn from empirical evidence, and how lab, field, and natural experiments can help establishing causation; (ii) teach the intuition behind some intermediate game theoretical concepts; (iii) discuss a wide range of applications and topics in economics.

Topics (tentative):

• Cooperation, commons, and environmental conservation

• Scarcity, inequality, and housing programs

• Education

• Labour market

• Discrimination

• Saliency and attention: taxation and consumption

• Moral hazard and markets for lemons

• Media bias and voting

• Financial decisions

Readings/Bibliography

Materials: lecture notes, slides, and readings will be made available during the course.

Teaching methods

Structure of the course: the course will comprise both traditional lectures and a hands on laboratory part. The laboratory part will include tools to run experiments online and analyze data (Qualtrics and Stata).

The laboratory part can be intended as a complement to the lectures and will help better understand the topic discussed in the lecture and answer the problem sets and develop the group projects.

Assessment methods

Exam (students attending): the final grade will be determined by

• class participation and problem sets: 30%

• groups assignments and presentation: 30%

• final essay: 40%

Office hours

See the website of Stefania Bortolotti