Topics in Behavioral Economics (Seminar, Bachelor, WS15)
Prof. Christoph Vanberg
Topics in Behavioral Economics
Course concept: This seminar is aimed at Bachelor students interested in Behavioral
Economics. Each student will read several articles on a chosen topic and prepare a short
literature survey. In addition, you will present one research article at a block seminar. (Note:
All requirements and deadlines described below are absolutely mandatory. No exceptions.)
Registration: (deadline: Oct 12)
• You must register by Monday, Oct 12.
• Use the attached form and return it via Email: fiwi[at]uni-heidelberg.de
Organizational meeting: (Thu, Oct 15)
• You must attend the organizational meeting in order to participate.
• The meeting will be held on Thursday, October 15, at 4pm in Room 00.005
• If you cannot make it at this time, you cannot participate in the seminar.
Requirements
• Before Oct 21st: Complete background readings and browse topics.
• Oct 21st: Send email ranking all five topics from favorite (1) to least favorite (5).
I will assign topics using a sophisticated and fair algorithm yet to be determined.
• Before Nov 2nd: Complete the assigned readings for your topic.
• Nov 2nd: Prepare a short (1 page) summary of each assigned paper.
– What is the main problem or question it deals with?
– What method (theoretical, empirical, experimental) is used?
– What is the main result or conclusion?
– (Why) is it important or interesting?
– Email to [email protected] with subject line ‘Yourname: Bachelor Seminar Assignment
1’
• Before Jan 8th: Conduct independent research
– Browse articles related to those you have read.
∗ Start with articles cited by the authors you have read, and which sounded interesting.
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Topics in Behavioral Economics (Seminar, Bachelor, WS15)
Prof. Christoph Vanberg
∗ Use google scholar to conduct backward and forward searches.
(Articles cited by, and articles citing those you have read.)
∗ Look at papers with promising titles and those that are cited most often.
∗ Begin with the abstract. If that looks interesting, browse the introduction, related literature, and conclusion. Download and save papers that may be worth reading later.
∗ Take special note of recurrent themes, articles that are often cited, etc.
– Identify at least two truly interesting articles that are related to one another
∗ One article might present a theory and others may test it experimentally.
∗ One may present experimental results and others may suggest different explanations.
∗ Some articles may explicitly criticize others, or you may discover contradictions yourself.
– Study each of these articles carefully.
∗ Read it several times, highlight, take notes.
∗ Ask questions. Read it again.
∗ Write a one page summary for yourself.
• Jan 8th: Turn in brief (10-12 page) literature review
– Clearly identify the common issue that your articles deal with.
– Motivate why this is interesting and important.
– Categorize articles in a systematic way. (Theory-experiment, pro-contra,...)
– Briefly summarize each article. (Don’t reuse your prior summaries. Write fresh, better.)
– Explain how the articles relate to one another.
– Provide a synthesizing conclusion.
– Identify at least one interesting question worthy of further research.
– Upload your literature review to moodle.
– Upload the paper you want to discuss (see next point) to moodle.
• Jan 15th (Friday): Give a presentation (20+10 minutes) at the block seminar
– Concentrate on one of the papers you worked on (20 minutes)
– Follow the guidelines in the handout ‘presenting a research paper’
– Lead the subsequent discussion (10 minutes)
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Topics in Behavioral Economics (Seminar, Bachelor, WS15)
Prof. Christoph Vanberg
LITERATURE
• All of the literature is available for download through moodle. Password: sembeheco15
Background readings: (All students must complete these readings!)
Rabin, M (2002). A Perspective on Psychology and Economics, European Economic Review
Camerer, C. and G. Loewenstein (2002). Behavioral Economics: Past, Present, Future, in: Camerer,
C., G. Loewenstein, and M. Rabin (eds), Advances in Behavioral Economics, Princeton.
Kahneman, D. (2003). A Psychological Perspective on Economics, American Economic Review
Papers and Proceedings
Camerer, C. (2003). Behavioral Game Theory, Chapter 1 (‘Introduction’)
Topics and introductory literature
(1) Probabilistic judgements
Tversky, A. and D. Kahneman (1974). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases,
Science
Crason, R. and J. Sundali (2005). The Gambler’s Fallacy and the Hot Hand: Empirical Data
from Casinos. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty.
(2) Reference dependence and prospect theory
Tversky, A. and D. Kahnemann (1981). The Framing of Decisions and the Psychology of
Choice, Science
Kahneman, D., J. Knetsch, and R. Thaler (1991). Anomalies: The Endowment Effect, Loss
Aversion, and Status Quo Bias, Journal of Economic Perspectives
(3) Intertemporal choice and self control
Loewenstein, G. and R. Thaler (1989). Anomalies: Intertemporal Choice, Journal of Economic
Perspectives
Laibson, D. (1997). Golden Eggs and Hyperbolic Discounting, Quarterly Journal of Economics
(4) Strategic reasoning
Nagel, R. (1995). Unraveling in Guessing Games: An Experimental Study, American Economic
Review
Levitt, S., J. List, and S. Sadoff (2011). Checkmate: Exploring Backward Induction among
Chess Players. American Economic Review
(5) Social preferences and morality
Fehr, E. and U. Fischbacher (2002) Why social preferences matter - the impact of non-selfish
motives on competition, cooperation, and incentives, The Economic Journal
Vanberg, V. (2008). On the economics of moral preferences, American Journal of Economics
and Sociology
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Topics in Behavioral Economics (Seminar, Bachelor, WS15)
Prof. Christoph Vanberg
Registration form
Name:
email:
Matrikelnumber:
Field of study:
Semester:
Please rank all five topics from best to worst. If you are indifferent between several topics,
indicate this by drawing a circle around them. This information is only preliminary. You
will have a chance to revise your preferences later (see course requirements).
Rank
1 (best)
2
3
4
5 (worst)
Topic Number
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