Behavioral economics studies the effects of psychological,cognitive,emotional,cultural and social factors in the decisions of individuals or institutions,and how these decisions deviate from those implied by classical economic theory.
Neuroeconomics is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to explain human decision-making,the ability to process multiple alternatives and to follow through on a plan of action. It studies how economic behavior can shape our understanding of the brain,and how neuroscientific discoveries can guide models of economics.
Managerial economics is a branch of economics involving the application of economic methods in the organizational decision-making process. Economics is the study of the production,distribution,and consumption of goods and services. Managerial economics involves the use of economic theories and principles to make decisions regarding the allocation of scarce resources. It guides managers in making decisions relating to the company's customers,competitors,suppliers,and internal operations.
Experimental economics is the application of experimental methods to study economic questions. Data collected in experiments are used to estimate effect size,test the validity of economic theories,and illuminate market mechanisms. Economic experiments usually use cash to motivate subjects,in order to mimic real-world incentives. Experiments are used to help understand how and why markets and other exchange systems function as they do. Experimental economics have also expanded to understand institutions and the law.
The ultimatum game is a game that has become a popular instrument of economic experiments. An early description is by Nobel laureate John Harsanyi in 1961. One player,the proposer,is endowed with a sum of money. The proposer is tasked with splitting it with another player,the responder. Once the proposer communicates his decision,the responder may accept it or reject it. If the responder accepts,the money is split per the proposal;if the responder rejects,both players receive nothing. Both players know in advance the consequences of the responder accepting or rejecting the offer.
Colin Farrell Camerer is an American behavioral economist,and Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Finance and Economics at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech).
The dictator game is a popular experimental instrument in social psychology and economics,a derivative of the ultimatum game. The term "game" is a misnomer because it captures a decision by a single player:to send money to another or not. Thus,the dictator has the most power and holds the preferred position in this “game.”Although the “dictator”has the most power and presents a take it or leave it offer,the game has mixed results based on different behavioral attributes. The results –where most "dictators" choose to send money –evidence the role of fairness and norms in economic behavior,and undermine the assumption of narrow self-interest when given the opportunity to maximise one's own profits.
Ernst Fehr is an Austrian-Swiss behavioral economist and neuroeconomist and a Professor of Microeconomics and Experimental Economic Research,as well as the vice chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of Zürich,Switzerland. His research covers the areas of the evolution of human cooperation and sociality,in particular fairness,reciprocity and bounded rationality.
Armin Falk is a German economist. He has held a chair at the University of Bonn since 2003.
In psychology,economics and philosophy,preference is a technical term usually used in relation to choosing between alternatives. For example,someone prefers A over B if they would rather choose A than B. Preferences are central to decision theory because of this relation to behavior. Some methods such as Ordinal Priority Approach use preference relation for decision-making. As connative states,they are closely related to desires. The difference between the two is that desires are directed at one object while preferences concern a comparison between two alternatives,of which one is preferred to the other.
Social preferences describe the human tendency to not only care about one's own material payoff,but also the reference group's payoff or/and the intention that leads to the payoff. Social preferences are studied extensively in behavioral and experimental economics and social psychology. Types of social preferences include altruism,fairness,reciprocity,and inequity aversion. The field of economics originally assumed that humans were rational economic actors,and as it became apparent that this was not the case,the field began to change. The research of social preferences in economics started with lab experiments in 1980,where experimental economists found subjects' behavior deviated systematically from self-interest behavior in economic games such as ultimatum game and dictator game. These experimental findings then inspired various new economic models to characterize agent's altruism,fairness and reciprocity concern between 1990 and 2010. More recently,there are growing amounts of field experiments that study the shaping of social preference and its applications throughout society.
Uri Hezkia Gneezy is an Israeli-American behavioral economist,known for his work on incentives. He currently holds the Epstein/Atkinson Endowed Chair in Behavioral Economics at the University of California,San Diego's Rady School of Management. He is also a visiting research professor at the University of Amsterdam and NHH in Bergen.
Paul W. Glimcher is an American neuroeconomist,neuroscientist,psychologist,economist,scholar,and entrepreneur. He is one of the foremost researchers focused on the study of human behavior and decision-making,and is known for his central role in founding and developing the field of neuroeconomics which takes an interdisciplinary approach to understanding how humans make decisions. Glimcher also founded the Institute for the Study of Decision Making at New York University (NYU),which he currently directs.
Neuromanagement uses cognitive neuroscience,among other life science fields,and technology to analyze economic and managerial issues. It focuses on exploring human brain activities and mental processes when people are faced with typical problems of economics and management. This research provides insight into human decision-making and other general social behavior. The main research areas include decision neuroscience,neuroeconomics,neuromarketing,neuro-industrial engineering,and neuro-information systems. Neuromanagement was first proposed in 2006 by Professor Qingguo Ma,the director of Neuromanagement Laboratory of Zhejiang University.
Behavioral game theory seeks to examine how people's strategic decision-making behavior is shaped by social preferences,social utility and other psychological factors. Behavioral game theory analyzes interactive strategic decisions and behavior using the methods of game theory,experimental economics,and experimental psychology. Experiments include testing deviations from typical simplifications of economic theory such as the independence axiom and neglect of altruism,fairness,and framing effects. As a research program,the subject is a development of the last three decades.
Gary Charness is Professor of Economics and the Director of the Experimental and Behavioral Economics Laboratory in the Department of Economics at the University of California,Santa Barbara. Charness is an economist and social scientist,specializing in experimental and behavioral work;he is currently ranked 3rd in the world by RePEc in the field of experimental economics and has published nearly 80 academic articles. Charness is a contributor to several areas of economic research,including social preferences,identity and group membership,communication and beliefs,behavioral interventions,group decision-making,social networks,gender,and individual decision-making. A centerpiece of his research has been to effect beneficial social outcomes in difficult economic environments. Charness's work has been discussed and published in The New York Times and Science,as well as in other media. Charness is married and has three children.
Urs Fischbacher is a Swiss economist and professor of applied economic research at the University of Konstanz. He is director of the Thurgau Economic Institute,an affiliated institute of the University of Konstanz. He pioneered the field of software tools for experimental economics.
Giorgio Coricelli is professor of economics and psychology at the University of Southern California,specializing in neuroeconomics. Having done his undergraduate studies at La Sapienza in Rome,he then completed his Ph.D. at the Economic Science Laboratory of the University of Arizona studying with Vernon Smith,shortly before Smith received his Nobel Prize in economics in 2002.
Muriel Niederle is a professor in the Department of Economics at Stanford University. Niederle teaches courses at Stanford University focusing specifically on experimental economics and market design. Muriel Niederle is interested in studying behavioral and experimental economics. Niederle's most recent publication was "Probabilistic States versus Multiple Certainties:The Obstacle of Uncertainty in Contingent Reasoning" in November 2017. She was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society in 2017.
Carlos Alós-Ferrer is a professor of decision and neuroeconomic theory at the University of Zurich and is currently the editor in chief of the Journal of Economic Psychology.
