How can a manager use incentives to motivate workers in your industry? How can a teacher use incentives to get students to study more?
Behavioral Economics
How can we get people to act the way we want? We want them to recycle, eat healthier food, save more for retirement, vote in the elections, study harder, put in their best effort at work. How can a company sell more without spending more on marketing? Behavioral economics provides insights. You, me, a manager, and the government – on all levels we can use incentives to nudge people into making the right choices, and we can appeal to emotions to trick people into making the right choices.
The goal of this research project is to examine deeper one of the topics that captured your attention during this course, and to collect most recent evidence on the topic. Think of your topic in the form of a research question. For example: Are there gender differences in making financial decisions? How can the government use nudges to solve a specific problem? How can a manager use incentives to motivate workers in your industry? How can a teacher use incentives to get students to study more? Does happiness increase with income? Is there a particular behavioral puzzle that you observe around you and wish to explore in depth? Links and books below discuss applications of behavioral economics, they can help you develop your research question. You may also go back and re-watch some of the videos under course modules.