Behavioral Economics (5 cr)

Code:
26037/62638
Field:
Behavioral Economics
Targets:
Master’s students Research Master's students PhD students
Organiser:
Hanken Shool of Economics
Instructor:
Topi Miettinen
Period:
Period 2
Format:
Lecture
Method:
Contact teaching
Venue:
Hanken campus
Enrollment:

In case of conflicting information consider the Sisu/Moodle pages the primary source of information.

Aalto and UH economics students can enroll in their home university’s SISU! Further instructions can be found on the How to enroll? page, also for other students.

Before taking and completing the course make sure that the credits can be counted towards your degree at your home university by checking which courses are included in your curriculum or by contacting your home university’s student/learning services. Please note that course content, learning outcomes and study materials may differ between MSc and Phd students. However, the lectures are the same.

  • A Moodle course key will be sent by email (to your Hanken email address) or it is posted as a message in Sisu couple of days before the course starts.
  • Log in with your Hanken username to be able to use all the features of the course workspace.
  • More tips for enrolling in Moodle can be found here.

MSc students (26037)

During the course you will extend your understanding about classical microeconomic theories and realize the gap between real life decisions and what the theories predict. You will learn to use the methods, central results, and theories of behavioural economics to explain behaviors, and their implications for the other fields of economics, and for microeconomics and industrial organization in particular. The course offers a master-level overview into behavioural decisions, behavioural games, dynamic behavioural decisions, as well as applications thereof.Doctoral students can also take this course.

PhD students (62638)

The course aims providing advanced economics students in the FDPE with insights regarding the implications of relaxing some of the standard simplifying rationality assumptions and adopting psychologically motivated alternative assumptions. The idea is to further learn to critically evaluate the modelling assumptions made both in behavioural (descriptive) and what is sometimes called"standard" (prescriptive) theory and understand the various criteria for choosing modelling assumptions. The backbone of the course is theoretical analysis but the course is spiced with economic experiments to provide further insight and evidence. The course offers an overview into Behavioural decisions, Behavioural games, Dynamic behavioral decisions, Experimental economics and experiment settings, as well as applications thereof.

MSc students (26037)

After completing the course, you will be able to:

  • enlist and distinguish the various purposes of modelling in economics and in particular the novel perspectives that behavioural economics provides
  • recognize and explain some of the core behavioural economics concepts
  • solve theoretical behavioural economics models, derive economic implications and relate them to those of non-behavioural economic models
  • critically evaluate why mathematical models are applied in economics and what limitations they have

PhD students (62638)

After completing the course, you will be able to:

  • write down psychologically motivated models of economics
  • distinguish between the various purposes of standard and behavioral modeling
  • apply modelling tools in the context relevant for your own research
  • assess the limitations and benefits of economic experimentation in empirical work
  • critically evaluate the modelling assumptions made both in behavioral (descriptive) and what is sometimes called "standard" (prescriptive) theory and know the implications of the various modelling assumptions.