Behavioral Economics and Public Policy

Catalog description

Economics has up to now been the social science that has been most broadly and deeply involved in public policy. With its rational choice perspective, the economic perspective has tended to favor certain types of policies namely those that enhance the efficiency of market mechanisms and lower the cost of information. In this course we will spend the first several classes reviewing the assumptions, implications for public policy, and limitations of the rational choice perspective. We will then examine, and critique, an approach to public policy called "nudge." The remainder of the course will then be devoted to examining different public policy issues, including saving, health care, crime and drug abuse, through the competing lenses of traditional and behavioral economics. Prerequisites: 73-102 or 73-104