Competencies and objectives

 

Course context for academic year 2022-23

The proposed course is an introduction to the theory and practice of experimental economics, with a special focus on the behavioral analysis of


1. individual (and interactive) decision making under risk and ambiguity;
2. risk, time and social preferences;
3. behavioral finance.

Since the ultimate goal is to design and run economic experiments, we shall complement the review of the existing experimental literature on these themes with a survey on methodological and design issues, together with a review of some popular statistical tools used to analyze behavioral data.

 

 

Course content (verified by ANECA in official undergraduate and Master’s degrees) for academic year 2022-23

General Competences (CG)

  • CG1 : Capacitat per a fer treball de recerca.
  • CG2 : Capacitat per a la recerca de dades (naturals i experimentals) i anàlisis d'aquesta informació.
  • CG3 : Capacitat d'aplicar teoria econòmica per a representar situacions reals.
  • CG4 : Capacitat de treball en equip.
  • CG5 : Capacitat d'aprenentatge autònom.
  • CG6 : Compromís ètic i responsabilitat social en el treball, respectant el medi ambient, coneixent i comprenent la importància del respecte als drets fonamentals, a la igualtat d'oportunitats entre homes i dones, a l'accessibilitat universal per a les persones amb discapacitat i al respecte als valors propis d'una cultura de pau i valors democràtics.
  • CG7 : Analitzar els problemes amb raonament crític, sense prejudicis, amb precisió i rigor.
  • CG8 : Capacitat de síntesi.

 

Specific Competences (CE)

  • CE1 : Capacitat de llegir raonadament i d'avaluar de manera crítica articles d'investigació en economia, i copsar-ne les contribucions essencials i les debilitats.
  • CE2 : Capacitat d'entendre com s'han resolt en cada cas els problemes tècnics als quals s'han hagut d'enfrontar els autors dels articles d'investigació.
  • CE3 : Capacitat de realitzar proves de proposicions i teoremes.
  • CE4 : Capacitat de comprendre i replicar les anàlisis empíriques i els experiments de simulació en què es basen les conclusions presentades en els articles d'investigació d'altres autors.
  • CE5 : Capacitat de plantejar problemes econòmics rellevants de manera precisa, i de donar resposta adequada a aquests problemes utilitzant les tècniques apreses en els diferents cursos, sustentant-se, si el seu estudi ho requereix, en anàlisis teòriques, empíriques o de simulació.
  • CE6 : Capacitat d'elaborar un informe o un article d'investigació en el qual es descriga el problema abordat, s'analitze la literatura prèvia sobre el tema, es present amb claredat la solució al problema obtinguda i se sintetitzen les conclusions del treball.

 

 

 

Learning outcomes (Training objectives)

No data

 

 

Specific objectives stated by the academic staff for academic year 2022-23

Experimental Economics offers an alternative data collection method to standard empirical methods in Economics that is directly designed to study specific research questions. In the practice of Experimental Economics the data collection process is under full control by the researcher, who can fine-tune the characteristics of the economic environment under scrutiny (incentives, dissemination of information, context and framing, etc…) to his or her own purposes. The methods of Experimental Economics rely on carefully controlled designs, in ways similar to Experimental Psychology or Experimental Physics. However, the ability to control for unwanted influences and unobserved phenomena is much weaker in the social than in the natural sciences, and in this course we will discuss the limits of our ability to construct an ideal social science experiment.
Students will be introduced to discussions about both the power and the limitations of Experimental Economics as a data collection method, and to discoveries that have spurred a deeper interest in individual and collective behavior. Students will practice the methods taught by reviewing published papers and designing their own experiment.
At the end of the course the students should be able to answer the following questions:

What are the most important benefits and limitations of the experimental methodology?
What are some of the most important discoveries made using economics experiments?
What are the elements of a good experimental design?
How should a good design be influenced by theory and econometric methods?

 

 

 

General

Code: 41216
Lecturer responsible:
CUEVA HERRERO, CARLOS
Credits ECTS: 5,00
Theoretical credits: 1,20
Practical credits: 0,40
Distance-base hours: 3,40

Departments involved

  • Dept: FOUNDATIONS OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
    Area: FOUNDATIONS OF ECONOMIC ANALYSIS
    Theoretical credits: 1,2
    Practical credits: 0,4
    This Dept. is responsible for the course.
    This Dept. is responsible for the final mark record.

Study programmes where this course is taught