Personal Finance

Catalog description

How should you manage your student loans? Is a credit card useful to have? Should you buy a house or rent? What are the different mortgage options available to finance a home and which one should you choose? How much should you contribute to your retirement savings account? Which health insurance makes the most financial sense? How do you know if graduate school is a good investment? Every day, individuals face many financial decisions. How they make these decisions and how they choose has potentially far reaching consequences for themselves. But it also has implications for society more generally, from how policy makers design the tax code and social services, to how firms interact with customers to how persistent income and wealth inequalities are over generations. In this class, we draw on research insights from financial economics, public economics and behavioral economics to cover a broad range of common financial decisions individuals face throughout their lives. We will discuss how individuals can make the best decisions for themselves, as well as common pitfalls and mistakes. We will also discuss the implications for policy makers, firms interacting with consumers and society more broadly.