Course description
This course introduces the students to frontier research topics in experimental economics. Experiments are now an accepted tool for empirical research in Economics, and they actually cover an impressive range of areas in all social sciences. Both the student who plans to actively conduct experiments and the student who want to use the results of experimental studies done by others will benefit from this course.
Its goal is to familiarize graduate students from EDLE and the Ph.D in Economics with recent behavioral advances. An array of applications will serve to illustrate the potential of this scientific methodology (caveat: the choice of topics is heavily biased by the research interests of the instructor).
The emphasis will be on discussing what was the research questions that motivated the paper, highlighting the pro and cons of the methodology, and the lesson learnt from the study.
Topics
The course will open with an introduction to what experiments are and touch upon two classic areas, markets and decisions under risk. It will then delve into other substantive topics such as cross-cultural experiments, group-decision making, and issues of cooperation with applications to monetary institutions and global dilemmas such as climate change.
Teaching methods
I will make use of in-class experiments and slide presentations. I encourage students to be active during the class with questions and comments on the material presented. All students are expected to read the required papers.
Syllabus
A detailed list of the reading material will be available on the first meeting.