Econ 219B, Applications of Psychology and Economics

Spring 2011

Lecture: Wednesday 12-3PM, 608-7 Evans
Instructor: Professor Stefano DellaVigna
Office: 515 Evans Hall
Office Hours: By email appointment
E-mail: sdellavi@berkeley.edu

Course Information

04/13/2011: Revised Syllabus

Problem Sets

01/19/2011: Problem Set 1
02/03/2011: Problem Set 2
04/07/2011: Problem Set 3
04/27/2011: Empirical Problem Set
04/27/2011: Data for the 219B Problem Set

Past Final Exams:

219B — Final Exam — Spring 2007

219B — Final Exam — Spring 2008

219B — Final Exam — Spring 2009

Lecture Notes

01/19/2011: Lecture Notes 1: Introduction / Prerequisites, Getting started!
Psychology and Economics: The Topics, Psychology and Economics: Empirical Methods, Methodology: Reading the Psychology Journals, Psychology and Economics by Field, and Defaults and 401(k)s: The Facts
01/26/2011: Lecture Notes 2: More on Default Effects, Comparison to Effect of Financial Education,Default Effects and Present Bias, Default Effects: Alternative Explanations, Present Bias and Consumption, Investment Goods: Homework, Investment Goods: Exercise and Leisure Goods: Credit card Borrowing
02/02/2011: Lecture Notes 3: Leisure Goods: Credit Card Borrowing II, Leisure Goods: Consumption and Savings I (Life-cycle), Consumption and Savings II (Commitments), Methodology: Commitment Field Experiment Designs, Errors in Applying Present-Biased Preferences and Seven More Applications of Present Bias
02/09/2011: Lecture Notes 4: Reference Dependence: Introduction and Endowment Effect, Methodology: Effect of Experience, Reference Dependence: Housing, Mergers and Insurance
02/16/2011: Lecture Notes 5: Reference Dependence: Labor Supply, Disposition Effect, Equity Premium, Domestic Violence and Employment and Effort
02/23/2011: Lecture Notes 6: Social Preferences: Introduction, Gift Exchange, Workplace, Charitable Giving I and Methodology: Field Experiments
03/02/2011: Lecture Notes 7: Social Preferences: Charitable Giving II, Non-Standard Beliefs, Overconfidence, and Law of Small Numbers
03/09/2011: Lecture Notes 8: Projection Bias, Non-Standard Decision-Making, Attention: Introduction, Simple Model, eBay Auctions and Taxes
03/16/2011: Lecture Notes 9: Framing, Menu Effects: Introduction, Excess Diversification, Methodology II: Clustering Standard Errors, Menu Effects: Choice Avoidance, Preference for Familiar, Preference for Salient and Confusion
04/06/2011: Lecture Notes 10: Menu Effects: Confusion, Persuasion, Social Pressure and Emotions: Mood
04/13/2011: Lecture Notes 11: Emotions: Arousal, Methodology: Lab and Field, Doing an Experiment: Nathanael
Methodology: Human Subjects Approval, Market Reaction to Biases: Introduction, Corporate Decisions
Market Reaction to Biases: Employers and Acland's CPHS presentation
04/20/2011: Lecture Notes 12: Market Reaction to Biases: Pricing, Methodology: Markets and Non-Standard Behavior, Market Reaction to Biases: Behavioral Finance and Political Economy
04/27/2011: Lecture Notes 13: Market Reaction to Biases: Political Economy, Welfare Response to Biases Summary of Evidence, and Concluding Remarks