BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS AND PUBLIC POLICIES
Basic knowledge of microeconomic and public finance theory.
Behavioral economics is a flourishing research program in recent economic analysis. Generally speaking, behavioral economics studies the effects of cognitive and emotional factors on individual economic behavior, and the aggregate consequences of this behavior on market equilibria and prices. Insights provided by behavioral economics have proved useful to shape public policies in fields such as saving, taxation, social security and health.
In the first part of the course, Moscati introduces the main concepts and findings of behavioral economics. In the second part, Figari discusses how these concepts and findings have been applied to public policies.
Decision making under certainty and uncertainty; intertemporal choice; behavioral finance; strategic interaction and social preferences; modelling individual response to public policies; public policy applications: pension savings, poverty, income support and redistribution, taxation.
Provisional list of reading:
- Angner, E. Behavioral Economics, 2nd edition. London: Palgrave, 2016.
- Congdon, W.J., Kling J.R. and Mullainathan S. Policy and Choice. Public Finance through the Lens of Behavioral Economics. Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2011
- Thaler, R.H, and Sunstein, C.R. Nudge, revised and expanded edition. New York: Penguin 2009.