Summer School 2022

Behavioral and Experimental Economics

27 June – 1 July, 2022

Experimental Economics has become an important tool of economic research and policy analysis. For instance, some experimental studies have focused on the procrastination that arises in consumption and savings behavior, while others have shown that self-interest is not the only driving force shaping behavior in bargaining games and that considerations of fairness play an important role.

 

The field was pioneered by Vernon Smith, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002, for developing a methodology that allows researchers to examine the effects of policy changes before they are implemented, and help policymakers make better decisions.

 

Together, with behavioral economics—which has established that people are a lot less rational than traditional economics had assumed—experimental economics is also being used to investigate how markets fail, and experimental evidence has helped spark an interest in theories of learning and adaptation.

 

Academic Coordinator for the 2022 edition: Marina Núñez (Universitat de Barcelona & BEAT)

 

Programme HERE.

Lecturers

friederike

Friederike Mengel is a Professor of Economics at the University of Essex and a Visiting Guest Professor at Lund University. Her research is focused mainly on (Evolutionary) Game Theory and Learning with a particular interest in learning across games and categorisation as well as models of (bounded) rationality more generally. She also studies the behaviour in social networks and the emergence of social norms. Recently, she has started to work on repeated games and on the formation of preferences. She received an ERC Starting grant in 2018 for her work on Opinion Dynamics. Professor Mengel currently teaches or has taught courses on Microeconomic Theory, Game Theory, Mathematics and Behavioural Economics. Professor Mengel was awarded a PhD in Quantitative Economics in 2008 from the University of Alicante.

pol

Pol Campos-Mercade is a Postdoc researcher at the Department of Economics, University of Copenhagen, and member of the Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI). He obtained his MSc in Economics from the University of Barcelona in 2015 and his PhD in Economics at Lund University in 2020.

As an applied economist, he uses field experiments, lab experiments, and theory to investigate issues related to education, health, and behavioral economics. His main interest is to study how incentives and reference points affect people’s decision-making, such as studying harder or taking a COVID-19 vaccine. In a second strand of research, he studies how heterogeneity in preferences can explain heterogeneity in behavior.

Course outline and schedule

The course will combine theory and practice. It is well known that microeconomic theories usually depend on individual preferences, which cannot be observed in natural environments. To overcome this drawback, it will be shown that experiments in the laboratory help to check whether the assumptions made about individuals are descriptive of their behavior. Such experiments involve both studies of individual choice and of the interactive behavior that is the concern of the theory of games. Also, following the recent trends, the implementation of field experiments and natural experiments, which take place outside the lab, will be considered.

Session 1 Introduction to Experimental Economics I. Pol Campos-Mercade

Session 2 Introduction to Experimental Economics II. Friederike Mengel

Lab 1 Participate in “Typical Experiments”. Pol Campos-Mercade

Session 3 Eliciting (Social) Preferences in Lab I. Friederike Mengel

Session 4 Eliciting (Social) Preferences in Lab II. Friederike Mengel

Lab 2 What are your preferences? Data Analysis. Pol Campos-Mercade

Session 5 Experimental Economics: Data Analysis. Friederike Mengel

Session 6 Learning and Opinion Dynamics in Networks. Friederike Mengel

Session 7 RCT’s and Field Experiments. Friederike Mengel

Session 8 Learning in Networks in the Field. Friederike Mengel

Session 9 Threshold Incentives in the Field. Pol Campos-Mercade

Session 10 Current Trends in Experimental Economics. Pol Campos-Mercade

 

This Summer School includes also a session where advanced students can present their works and receive feedback. Complete syllabus of the programme is available HERE.

Schedule

Dates: June 27th – July 1st, 2022
Lecture hours: 22.5 hours

Applications

Applications are currently closed and all the places are fully covered.

Candidates to the Summer School programme at the UB School of Economics should ensure that they meet the requirements before applying to the course:

– Students should possess a solid background in Economics or related field.

– Although no language certificate is required, we expect all applicants to show full competency in English.

Tuition Fees

 

General fee: 710 euros*

Student fee: 475 euros

 

*25% discount on the general fee for early career researchers (within five years of the award of their PhD)

 

Fees cover: coffee breaks, the welcome dinner, the farewell cocktail, unlimited access to the UB Sports Centre and any material required for the course. They do not cover accommodation, transport or any other services.

 

Student fee eligibility: We will only consider you for the Student Reduced Fee if you are a full-time PhD or Master student enrolled at a university or college, or if you have just finished university or if you are starting university in the same year as the Summer School course. You will be asked to provide a proof of this status at the moment of the application.

 

Payments: Participants offered a place on the Summer School will receive an e-mail with (i) the admission letter and (ii) the payment instructions. Payments of the tuition fees are required to secure a place once offered.

 

Cancellation policy: All cancellations must be received in writing and sent in advance by email. Participants wishing to withdraw from the Summer School will have their tuition fees partially refunded according to the following policy: Prior to 15 days before the beginning of the course: full refund of the registration fee, less €100 of administrative costs.

 

Scholarships

 

Master and PhD students seeking financial aid may apply for one of the five scholarships available. Each scholarship covers the course tuition fees. Applicants should add (i) a cover letter and (ii) a support letter from their supervisor or professor to the online application form. Please note that candidates already graduated will not be eligible to apply for scholarships.

 

Deadline for registration including scholarship application is April 30th, 2022. Applications will be reviewed by the Summer School academic coordinator. Priority will be given to those working on a clearly related topic. The list of awarded participants will be published by May 15th, 2022.

 

Tuition fees already paid by participants awarded with one of the scholarships will be reimbursed as soon as possible.

 

Find the list of awarded students HERE.

 

Attendance Certificates

 

Summer School at the UB School of Economics is accredited in accordance with the European Credit Transfer System and will be recognized by the University of Barcelona as 3 ECTS credits.

 

ECTS – a common language for academic recognition: ECTS, the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, was developed by the European Commission in order to provide common procedures to guarantee academic recognition of studies abroad. It provides a way of measuring and comparing learning achievements and transferring them from one institution to another. This is achieved through the use of common ECTS credit units and a common ECTS grading scale.