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ECUE Behavioural public policy

ECUE's code : IMEX109

Belong to 2 UE
EUR ELMI
Sciences économiques
Campus Saint Jean d'Angély
Master 1 , Master 2
Semestre impair
Anglais

PRESENTATION

The course offers an introduction to the field of behavioural public policies, i.e. the use of behavioural sciences in the design and justification of public policies. The course will present some classical results in behavioural economics and its application to public policies in different areas: public health, the environment, financial decisions, and education.

Students will have to read papers (usually, cases of policy interventions) ahead of the lecture and discuss them during the class.

Course's manager(s)

Guilhem Lecouteux

In class

  • 20h of lectures

PREREQUISITES

Before the start of the course, I must ...
  • Be familiar with basic/intermediate microeconomics

OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course, I should be able to...
  • Design a policy intervention inspired by behavioural sciences (e.g. nudges, boosts)
  • Identify behaviours that could justify behavioural public policies
  • Discuss ethical challenges raised by behavioural public policies

CONTENT

  • The aim of the first section is to introduce some classical results in behavioural economics, and to highlight to which extent it deviates from the 'standard' model in microeconomics. We will discuss possible policy implications from those findings.

  • The aim of the second section is to discuss how to design a behavioural intervention, from the identification of possible mechanisms that could influence behaviours to the actual experimental design and the measure of the effect of the intervention (mostly with a double differences approach).

  • This section will focus on environmental policies, with a focus on (i) energy savings, and (ii) the challenge of collective action.

  • This section will discuss health policies, with a focus on (i) nutrition, and (ii) the prevention of addictions.

  • This section investigates some issues discussed in behavioural finance, and some common biases in individual financial decisions. 

  • This section focuses on two complementary aspects of education policies, i.e. (i) students' choice of their field of study / diploma, and (ii) learning in the classroom.

Access to complete Syllabus (Authentification required)
Important
This syllabus has no contractual value. Its content is subject to change throughout this year: be aware to the last updates