Winter Term 2012/2013
Lecture "Behavioral Economics"
Urs Fischbacher
Wednesday 8:15-9:45, F 425
Neoclassical economic models rest on the assumptions of rationality and selfishness. Behavioral economics investigates departures from these assumptions and develops alternative models. In this lecture, we will discuss inconsistencies in intertemporal decisions, the role of reference points, money illusion and non-selfish behavior. We will analyze models that aim in a better description of actual human behavior
Seminar “Experimentelle Wirtschaftsforschung, Experimental Economics”
Urs Fischbacher
Inhaltsübersicht
Neben Theorie und Empirie haben sich auch in der ökonomischen Forschung Experimente als Methode etabliert. In diesem Seminar geht es darum, selbständig ein Experiment zu entwickeln, durchzuführen und zu analysieren. In Zweiergruppen (oder alleine) bearbeiten Sie ein Thema und entwickeln im Rahmen dieses Themas eine Experimentidee. In einem ersten Vortrag stellt jede Gruppe eine Idee vor. Danach erhalten Sie die Möglichkeit, das Experimentdesign zu verbessern, zu implementieren und das Experiment durchzuführen.
PhD Course: Design and Data Analysis for Experiments
Urs Fischbacher
Summary
In recent time, also in economics, experiments have increasingly been used. Econometrically, they have important advantages compared to non experimental data sets. They allow controlling the parameters of the situation, which reduces uncontrolled variance. Most importantly, exogenous treatment variations allow drawing causal conclusions. Nevertheless, there are also econometrical problems typical for experimental data. Data sets are small, variables are often discrete and the interaction in a typical experiment creates dependencies in the data. In this course, I will give an introduction to the experimental method and discuss the econometrical problem typical in the analysis of economic experiments.
Programming Economic Experiments with z-Tree
Urs Fischbacher and Katharine Bendrick will offer a course in z-Tree from October 1-3, 2012. Days one and two are intended to be an introduction to zTree for beginners. The third day will be devoted to introducing advanced topics and new developments in zTree, the largest being the implementation of strings which can be used as variables (for those of you new to the program, previously only numbers could be treated as variables, in the new version words can be used too!). Please send an email to Katharine Bendrick (Katharine.Bendrick@uni-konstanz.de) by September 1, 2012 with your name and email address. If you are experienced with zTree and would like to attend day three only, please include this in the email. As places are limited, we may not be able to accommodate all requests. You will receive an email by September 8th to confirm whether or not you may attend the course.The course will take place at the University of Konstanz in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland, at the Pädagogische Hochschule Thurgau, at no cost.
Information about the local bus lines can be found here: click here
Line 908 will take you from Konstanz to Kreuzlingen. It is about a 5 minute walk from the bus stop "Bärenplatz" in Kreuzlingen to the Pädagogische Hochschule Thurgau where the workshop will take place.