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American Economic Review Vol. 105 No. 5 2015

Principles of (Behavioral) Economics

David Laibson1; John A. List2

1 Department of Economics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138 and NBER (e-mail: ) · 2 University of Chicago, 1126 E. 59th Street, Chicago, IL, 60637, and NBER (e-mail: )

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Abstract

Behavioral economics has become an important and integrated component of modern economics. Behavioral economists embrace the core principles of economics—optimization and equilibrium—and seek to develop and extend those ideas to make them more empirically accurate. Behavioral models assume that economic actors try to pick the best feasible option and those actors sometimes make mistakes. Behavioral ideas should be incorporated throughout the first-year undergraduate course. Instructors should also considering allocating a lecture (or more) to a focused discussion of behavioral concepts. We describe our approach to such a lecture, highlighting six modular principles and empirical examples that support them.

DOI
10.1257/aer.p20151047
Volume
105
Issue
5
Pages
385-390
Language
en
Sources
bibtex:phds-export.bib openalex crossref

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