Browse: Keyword: Bounded Rationality

Advanced Macroeconomics II, Spring 2004

Abstract:: Topics change from year to year. Most recent topics include: optimal fiscal and monetary policy; optimal capital taxation; time inconsistency and incentive incompatibility of optimal policies; redistribution and political economics; heterogeneous agents and incomplete markets; Real Business Cycle models and new-keynesian models; endogenous growth; aggregate fluctuations and propagation mechanisms; recursive methods and robust control in macro. 14.462 is the second semester of the second-year Ph.D. macroeconomics sequence. The course is intended to introduce the students, not only to particular areas of current research, but also to some very useful analytical tools. It covers a selection of topics that varies from year to year. Recent topics include: Growth and Fluctuations; Heterogeneity and Incomplete Markets; Optimal Fiscal Policy; Time Inconsistency; Reputation; Coordination Games and Macroeconomi; Complementarities; Information.

Behavioral Economics and Finance, Spring 2004

Abstract:: Surveys research which incorporates psychological evidence into economics. Prospect theory. Biases in probabilistic judgment. Self-control and mental accounting with implications for consumption and savings. Fairness, altruism, and public goods contributions. Financial market anomalies and theories. Impact of markets, learning, and incentives. Some evidence on memory, attention, categorization, and the thinking process.

Abstract:: Integrates psychological insights into economic models of behavior. Discusses the limitations of standard economic models and surveys the ways in which psychological experiments have been used to learn about preferences, cognition, and behavior. Topics include trust, vengence, fairness, impatience, impulsivity, bounded rationality, learning, reinforcement, classical conditioning, loss-aversion, over-confidence, self-serving biases, cognitive dissonance, altruism, subjective well-being, and hedonic adaptation. Economic concepts such as equilibrium, rational choice, utility maximization, Bayesian beliefs, game theory, and behavior under uncertainty are discussed in light of these phenomena.