Econ 219B, Applications of Psychology and Economics

Spring 2010

Lecture: Wednesday, 12n-3pm, 608-7 Evans Hall
Instructor: Professor Stefano DellaVigna
Office: 515 Evans Hall
E-mail: sdellavi@econ.berkeley.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday, 12-2pm

04/07/10: Updated Course Syllabus

Lecture Notes:

02/24/10: Lecture 6: Psychology and Economics by Field, Defaults and 401(k)s: The Facts, Comparison to Effect of Financial Education, Default Effects and Present Bias, Default Effects: Alternative Explanations, Present Bias and Consumption, Investment Goods: Homework and Methodology: Reading the Psychology Journals
03/17/10: Lecture 8: Investment Goods: Exercise, Leisure Goods: Credit Card Borrowing, Leisure Goods: Consumption and Savings I (Life-cycle), Leisure Goods: Consumption and Savings II (Commitments), Methodology: Errors in Applying Present-Biased Preferences, Non-Standard Beliefs, and Overconfidence I
03/30/10: Lecture 9: Overconfidence, Law of Small Numbers, Projection Bias, Non-Standard Decision-Making, Attention: Introduction, Simple Model and Bay Auctions
04/07/10: Lecture 10: Attention: Taxes, Small Numbers, Financial Markets, Methodology I: Portfolio Methodology, Framing Menu Effects: Introduction, Excess Diversification, Methodology II: Clustering Standard Errors
04/13/10: Lecture 11: Methodology: Clustering Standard Errors II, Menu Effects: Choice Avoidance and Preference for Familiar, Preference for Salient and Confusion, Persuasion and Social Pressure
04/21/10: Lecture 12: Social Pressure II, Emotions: Mood and Arousal, Methodology: Lab and Field, Market Reaction to Biases: Introduction, Pricing, Employers and Political Economy
04/28/10: Lecture 13: Market Reaction to Biases: Behavioral Finance, Corporate Decisions, Employers and Political Economy Welfare Response to Biases, Methodology: Markets and Non-Standard Behavior, Summary of Evidence and Concluding Remarks

Problem Sets:

04/12/10: Problem Set #1: Problem set on Market Response — Due on April 21
04/29/10: Empirical Problem Set
04/29/10: Data for the 219B Problem Set

Past Exams:

219B — Final Exam — Spring 2007

219B — Final Exam — Spring 2008

219B — Final Exam — Spring 2009