View Specification DocumentAdvanced Topics in Behavioural Economics ECON5142
- Academic Session: 2026-27
- School: Adam Smith Business School
- Credits: 20
- Level: Level 5 (SCQF level 11)
- Typically Offered: Semester 2
- Available to Visiting Students: No
- Collaborative Online International Learning: No
- Curriculum For Life: No
Short Description
The course combines methods used in microeconomic models of behaviour with insights from psychology, neuroscience and experimental economics towards providing a better understanding of economic behaviour and decision makers' welfare in environments that include choice under certainty, risk, uncertainty as well as choice over time. The course also studies biases in the formation of probabilistic beliefs and in the updating of such beliefs as new information arrives. Both experimental/empirical evidence and theoretical models will be presented and analysed so that an in-depth understanding of the relevant behaviours can be gained from complementary modes of analysis. Finally, the course discusses some economic, welfare, business and policy implications of the phenomena to be studied and the models used to explain them.
Timetable
Lectures: 9 x 2-hour lectures on campus. These are interactive lectures for which asynchronous activities will be included for preparation (e.g., online quizzes on Moodle).
Workshop: 1 x 2-hour workshop on campus
Tutorials: 5 x 1-hour tutorials on campus
Requirements of Entry
Students must be registered on one of the associated programmes listed in this course specification.
Excluded Courses
None.
Co-requisites
None.
Assessment
1. Oral assessment & presentation; Group; 20 minutes, 15-20 technical slides; 25%; ILOs 3-4.
2. Degree exam: in-person; Individual; 120 minutes; 75%; ILOs 1-3.
Main Assessment In: April/May
Are reassessment opportunities available for all summative assessments? No
It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.
[No exceptions]
Course Aims
The course aims to teach students some important methods on the frontier of Behavioural Economics. With the goal of providing more accurate descriptions of actual human behaviour, the course specifically aims to teach students how neoclassical microeconomic analysis can be combined with relevant insights from psychology and neuroscience. The course finally aims to demonstrate the real-world importance of this analysis through the discussion of relevant economic, welfare, business and policy implications.
Intended Learning Outcomes of Course
By the end of this course students will be able to:
1. Discuss ways in which standard theories of rational choice are violated in environments of riskless, risky, uncertain and intertemporal choice, as well as ways in which standard theories of probabilistic belief formation and updating are violated in environments of judgement under uncertainty.
2. Discuss leading behavioural theories motivated by research in psychology and neuroscience that can explain the observed deviations of human decision making from the predictions of rational-choice theories.
3. Evaluate and interpret the methods and some of the latest empirical findings and theoretical results in the literature, and identify practical policy and business solutions.
4. Work effectively in teams to produce an essay or technical report using Behavioural Economics methods.