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ECON30019

Behavioural Economics

SUBJECT GUIDE

Semester 2, 2022

Subject Overview

This subject introduces students to   empirical   research   demonstrating   economically important patterns of behaviour that violate standard rationality assumptions, and to theoretical research aimed at capturing these behavioural patterns in tractable models. Most of the semester will be devoted to behavioural aspects of individual decision making, such as temptation and present-biased preferences, prospect theory, reference-dependent preferences, and over-confidence. We will also cover happiness research and behavioural public economics. This subject can be profitably taken alongside ECON30022, which in addition to the design of experiments also covers behavioural aspects of strategic interaction.

Intended Learning Outcomes

This course is intended to

explain  behavioural patterns uncovered in behavioural economics and how they relate to standard economics assumptions,

explain formal models developed by behavioural economists to tractably capture such findings,

evaluate the contribution of behavioural economics to economic knowledge.

Eligibility and Requirements

To view the eligibility and requirements, including prerequisites, corequisites, recommended background knowledge and core participation requirements for this subject, please see the University Handbook:

https://handbook.unimelb.edu.au/2022/subjects/econ30019/eligibility-and-requirements

Academic Staff Contact Details

Subject Coordinator:

Consultation Hours:

Dr. Siqi Pan

(from Week 2) Schedule on LMS

Tutors:

Consultation Hours:

Anthony  van  den  Berg,  Dean  Hoi,  Gloria  Chen,  Jillian  Huiwen

Zha, Jonathan Lim, Liam Horrocks, Louisa Borland

(from Week 3) Schedule on LMS

econ30019[email protected]

During the semester (before 18 November 2022), please always use  the  subject  email  for  any  type  of  inquiries  regarding  the subject. Inquiries directed to the personal email accounts of Dr. Pan or tutors will not be answered in time or in detail.

After the semester (after 18 November 2022), feel free to contact Dr. Pan at siqi.pan@unimelb.edu.au if your email to the subject email is not answered in time.

Email Protocol

Please note that we are only able to respond to student emails coming from a University email address. Please do not use personal email addresses such as Yahoo, Hotmail or even business email addresses. Emails from non-University email addresses may be filtered by the  University’s  spam  filter,  which  means  that  we  may  not  receive  your  email.  All correspondence relating to this subject will only be sent to your University email address. Note that you  must first  activate your  University  email address  before you can send or receive  emails  at  that  address.  You  can  activate  your  email  account  at  this  link: http://accounts.unimelb.edu.au/.

While academic staff endeavor to address queries received via email, it is more appropriate to   resolve  substantive  questions  during   lectures  and  tutorials  and/or  during   normal consultation  hours. With this  in  mind, we  encourage students to  attend  all  lectures  and tutorials and to familiarise themselves with the consultation hours offered by the lecturers and tutors in this subject.

Lectures

Teaching Period:

Time:

Venue:

Topics

25 July 2022 to 21 October 2022

Tuesday 9:00 to 11:00

PAR-The Spot-B01 (Copland Theatre)

Live-streamed and Recorded

(Subject to Change)

1.   Introduction

2.   Preferences and Choices

3.   Beliefs and Probability Judgement

4.   Choice under Risk and Uncertainty

5.   Intertemporal Choice

6.   Public Policy and Nudge

7.   Strategic Interaction and Social Preferences

Lecture Slides

Lecture slides will be placed on the LMS page for this subject prior to each lecture.

Recorded Lectures

Audio and video recordings of lectures delivered in this subject will be made available for review. These recordings allow you to revise lectures during the semester, or to review them in preparation for the end of semester exam.

You can access recorded lectures by clicking on the Lecture Recordings (or similar) menu item on the LMS page for this subject.

Please note that for live classes, recordings are not a substitute for attendance; rather they are designed for revision. On rare occasions the recordings can fail to take place due to technical reasons. In such cases, a substitute recording will be made available.

Tutorials

Time and Venue

Tutorials commence in Week 2 (August 1-5, 2022).

Detailed schedule on LMS.

Participation Requirements

Tutorial questions will be placed on the LMS page for this subject prior to each class. Please attempt the questions before coming to class.

Private Tutoring Services

The Faculty has become increasingly concerned about the existence of a number of private tutoring services operating in Melbourne that heavily target University of Melbourne students enrolled in FBE subjects.

Students are urged to show caution and exercise their judgement if they are considering using any of these services, and to please take note of the following:

Any  claim  by  any  of these  businesses  that  they  have  a special”  or collaborative”  or “partnership” style relationship with the University or Faculty is false and misleading.

Any claim by a private tutoring service that they are in possession of, or can supply you with, forthcoming University exam or assignment questions or insider” or exclusive” information is also false and misleading.

The University has no relationship whatsoever with any of these services and takes these claims very seriously as they threaten to damage the University’s reputation and undermine its independence.

It  is  also  not  appropriate for  students  to  provide  course  materials  (including  University curricula, reading materials, exam and assignment questions and answers) to operators of these  businesses  for  the  purposes  of  allowing  them  to  conduct  commercial  tutoring activities. Doing so may amount to misconduct and will be taken seriously. Those materials contain intellectual property owned or controlled by the University.

We encourage you to bring to the attention of Faculty staff any behaviour or activity that is not aligned with University expectations or policy as outlined above.

Assessment

Assessment Overview

Your assessment for this subject comprises the following:

Assessment Task

Individual or Group

Due

Weighting

Assignment 1

Individual

15 Aug 2022

7%

Assignment 2

Individual

29 Aug 2022

7%

Assignment 3

Individual

12 Sep 2022

7%

Assignment 4

Individual

3 Oct 2022

7%

Assignment 5

Individual

17 Oct 2022

7%

3-hour end-of-semester exam

Hurdle requirement: To pass this subject, students must pass the end of semester examination

Individual

During the exam period

65%

Assessment Details

Typing requirement for all assessment tasks:

•    For all assignments and the exam, you are required to type all your answers (including equations).

•    If you want to include a graph, you can draw it using software or insert a hand- drawn picture.

•   You can use the Equation Typing Aid provided on LMS.

Assignments:

•   Assignments are due at 11:59 pm on Monday in weeks 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12.

•   Questions will be posted at least a week before the due date.

•   Solutions  will  be  covered  in  lecture  and  published  on  LMS  on  the  Tuesday following the due date.

Examination:

•    Duration: 30-minute reading time + 3-hour writing time

•    Format: open-book online exam with strict time limit

Assignment Submission

Please note that you are required to keep a copy of your assignment after it has been submitted as you must be able to produce a copy of your assignment at the request of teaching staff at any time after the submission due date.

Penalties for Late Submission

In order to ensure equality for all students, assignments must be submitted by specified deadlines. Late submissions will not be accepted. Failure to submit an assignment on time will result  in a zero mark on that assignment. Students with a genuine and acceptable reason for not completing an assignment (or other assessment task), such as illness, can apply for special consideration (see Policies below).

Subject Resources

No textbook is required for this course. However, I will be loosely following this book:

•   Angner, Erik. A course in behavioral economics. (Any edition) Macmillan Education Palgrave.

Academic Integrity

Academic Honesty

The University maintains high academic standards in its courses and subjects and expects students to conduct themselves in a manner which is fair, honest and consistent with the principles of academic  integrity,  particularly when  undertaking assessment and research.

http://academicintegrity.unimelb.edu.au/

Referencing

Each  source  used  for  a  written  piece  of  assessment  must  be  referenced.  This  is  to acknowledge that your material is not based entirely on your own ideas, but is based, in part,  on  the  ideas,  information,  and  evidence  of  others.  This  is  desirable  as  you  are attending University in order to learn from others.

You will be required to use the APA system or Harvard System of referencing. The library has prepared a website to help students correctly reference:


http://www.library.unimelb.edu.au/recite

It is important that all material you present for assessment is referenced correctly. Material that has not been referenced correctly may be considered to be plagiarised, and as such may be penalised. We will also look for evidence that material included in the bibliography has been used in the assignment.

The  Academic  Skills  Unit  has  produced  resources  to  assist  students  with  referencing

https://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills/undergrads/top_resources The Library also provides advice on referencing:http://library.unimelb.edu.au/cite

University Services

Timetable

MyTimetable is a class timetabling system that creates individual timetables for students based on submitted class preferences, ensuring everyone has an equitable opportunity of getting their preferred class timetable. You will use this system to create your class timetable prior to each study period.

By following a preference-based model, students who have other commitments, such as employment or carer responsibilities, or who are  returning or  living overseas during the timetabling period, aren’t disadvantaged by their limited availability. When allocating class timetables, MyTimetable also takes into consideration factors such as class size limits and potential clashes to ensure all students are equally accommodated. Further information is available on the web athttps://students.unimelb.edu.au/admin/class-timetable

Stop 1: Connecting Students and Services

Stop 1 is here to provide you with a range of support services throughout your university degree, from help with enrolment, administration and wellbeing to advice on building your skills and experiences.https://students.unimelb.edu.au/stop1

Academic Skills

Academic Skills offers a range of workshops and resources to help you with study skills including researching, writing and referencing, presentation skills and preparing for exams. Visit their website viahttp://services.unimelb.edu.au/academicskills.