-
Economics of the media
Watch all videos in the Economics of the Media video course, record main points, send notes to instructor.
2. Economics of food and water
Watch videos from parts 3 and 4 of the Development Economics course, record main points, send to instructor.
3. Economics of corruption
Watch videos from parts 13 of the Development Economics course, record main points, send to instructor.
-
Economics of marriage and divorce
Readings:
- Marriage & Intermarriage -Pew research
- The economics of marriage – world finance
- Tim Harford, The economics of marriage – Slate
- Tim Harford, Divorce Is Good for Women – Slate
- How to Save Marriage– marriage trends in US, Atlantic 2014
- Why Aren’t More Wives Outearning Their Husbands? – Atlantic
- The dating gap – why not in women’s favor? Guardian 2015
- The economics of sex – supply and demand in market for sex
- The rise of wives – Pew Research Center
- Men marry up educationally – institute for family studies
- Lorna Wendt’s $20 million divorce– home production value
- My divorce cost me $250,000 – a woman’s story
- Marriage premium for men – why do married men earn more?
- David Friedman Law’s Order: What Economics Has to Do With Law and Why It Matters” , read Ch 13
Assignment, answer the following questions:
- Based on your readings for this module, describe with numbers 5 recent trends related to marriage, divorce, cohabitation, and family composition. What explains each of these trends?
- Based on all the readings from this module, make a detailed lists of benefits and costs of marriage. Explain each briefly.
- How do economists explain marriage wage premium for men?
- Read Friedman’s chapter on ‘Family’ from the book ‘Law’s Order’. What have you learned about the economics of the family?
5. Economics of crime
Readings:
- Stealing A Few Moments For CRIME -Pedestrian Guide to Econ
- Crime, from the encyclopedia of economics by Friedman
- Rational Criminals –Friedman, chapter in Hidden Order: The economics of Everyday Life
- Gary Becker, The Economics of Crime -article
- Slate: Does Crime Pay? – Yes, for some
- The Economics of Cheating – read this chapter
Questions
1. How do rational criminals make choices? Explain with examples. Why would a rational individual be more likely to steal from someone they don’t know than from someone they know and like?
2. How can a potential victim or the government set incentives to reduce crime by increasing the cost of a crime or reducing the benefit. Give examples of such actions. (from Friedman’s book chapter or other source).
3. From the point of view of a student, consider costs and benefits of cheating. You are deciding whether to buy a final research paper for this course online, or write your own original paper. Describe your benefits of buying a paper, and your immediate and potential costs. Compare the benefits and costs in term of money. What factors make students cheat more? How can a school encourage good behavior and discourage this kind of cheating?
6. Behavioral economics
- Ariely: What is behavioral economics? – big think
-
The science of thinking – fast and slow systems, 12m video
Thinking fast and slow by Kahneman – animated 1
Thinking fast and slow: cognitive biases – animated 2
Thinking fast and slow: more biases – animated 3
System 1 and 2 thinking – with applications to management
Teaching kids to think slow may reduce crime – fivethirtyeight.com
Predictably Irrational : Everything is Relative- happiness too
4 cognitive biases to avoid – self-serving, cognitive fluency, sunk cost, confirmation biases
Your brain is primed to reach false conclusions – illusion of causality, fivethirtyeight
20 cognitive biases that screw up our decisions – business insider
What is behavioral economics –10min talk
Managing overconfidence – management journal article
Decision making biases – 4min, business approach
Delusions of objectivity – Harford, naive realism
Expected utility and prospect theory – 7min video
The cognitive biases tricking your brain – the Atlantic
-
- Ariely: Are we in control of our own decisions? – TED
- Dan Gilbert: Why we make bad decisions – TED, intro to biases
-
QuestionsExplain system 1 and system 2 thinking, and how you use them in making your own decisions. Pick any 5 cognitive biases from this module. Give definitions. For each, explain how it can influence your decision making using your own examples of relevant situations; how you possibly benefit from this bias; how it makes you prone to mistakes; and what you can do to avoid it
7. Final project: 6-8 page research paper on a topic related to the course.