This course is designed to provide learners with a comprehensive  understanding of how psychological, cognitive, and social factors influence  economic decision-making. It equips learners with knowledge of heuristics,  biases, risk and uncertainty, intertemporal choice, and social preferences.  Emphasis is placed on applying behavioral insights to policy, finance,  business, and development, enabling learners to analyze real-world  decisions and promote more effective, informed, and welfare-enhancing  economic outcomes.

CLO 1: Explain the key concepts, theories, and terminology of behavioral  economics, including heuristics, biases, risk, uncertainty, and intertemporal choice.

CLO 2: Describe how psychological, cognitive, and social factors shape individual  and group economic decision-making in different contexts.

CLO 3: Apply behavioral economics principles to analyze practical issues in policy,  finance, business, and development settings.

CLO 4: Evaluate decision-making processes and design informed interventions by  transferring behavioral insights to new economic and real-world problems.

Foundations of Behavioral Economics: Understanding the meaning, scope, and  development of behavioral economics; examining how it departs from standard  economic assumptions of full rationality, stable preferences, and perfect self control; exploring bounded rationality, bounded willpower, and bounded self interest; identifying the relevance of psychology in explaining economic behavior  and decision-making;
Judgment, Heuristics, and Cognitive Biases: Examining how  individuals make judgments under limited information and time; understanding  heuristics such as availability, representativeness, and anchoring; exploring biases  including overconfidence, framing effects, confirmation bias, and mental shortcuts; analyzing how these influence consumer, investor, and policy decisions;
Choice  under Risk and Uncertainty: Understanding decision-making in risky and uncertain  environments; distinguishing between expected utility theory and actual observed  behavior; exploring prospect theory, reference dependence, loss aversion, and  probability weighting; identifying how individuals evaluate gains and losses in  economic contexts;
Intertemporal Choice and Self-Control: Examining how  individuals make choices involving present and future outcomes; understanding  discounting, present bias, procrastination, temptation, and self-control problems;  exploring commitment devices and their role in savings, health, education, and  consumption behavior; 
Social Preferences and Social Interaction: Exploring how  fairness, reciprocity, altruism, trust, cooperation, and social norms influence  economic behavior; understanding the role of identity, peer effects, and inequality  aversion in shaping group and market outcomes; analyzing behavior beyond pure  self-interest;
Behavioral Game Theory and Strategic Interaction: Understanding  strategic decision-making where individuals respond to the actions and beliefs of  others; examining bounded rationality in games, trust games, ultimatum games,  public goods games, and coordination problems; analyzing real-life strategic  behavior in markets and organizations;
Experimental and Empirical Methods in  Behavioral Economics: Examining the use of laboratory experiments, field  experiments, surveys, and empirical methods in testing behavioral theories;  understanding data collection, hypothesis design, causal inference, and  interpretation of findings; evaluating the strengths and limitations of behavioral  evidence;
Behavioral Public Economics and Nudge Design: Exploring how  behavioral insights inform public policy; understanding nudges, defaults, incentives,  framing, reminders, and choice architecture; examining applications in taxation,  pensions, health, education, and public service delivery; considering welfare and  ethical implications of intervention design;
Behavioral Finance and Consumer  Decision-Making: Understanding how psychological factors influence financial and  consumer choices; exploring limited attention, mental accounting, inertia,  borrowing behavior, under-saving, and investor biases; analyzing household  finance, spending patterns, and market behavior;
Applications to Development,  Health, Environment, and Organizations: Examining how behavioral economics  applies to development policy, health behavior, environmental sustainability, and  organizational management; understanding interventions that improve welfare,  productivity, compliance, and decision quality; evaluating the broader relevance  of behavioral economics in solving real-world problems.