14.137 Psychology for Economists
Spring 2009
Instructor: Drazen Prelec
Teaching Assistant: Florian Ederer
Lecture: W (4-6.30 PM) (E51-372)
Information:
Announcements
Preliminary Presentation Schedule
Below is the preliminary presentation schedule. If your name is not yet on the list and you have/want to present, please let me know.
April 29:
Andrey Liscovich
May 6:
Daria Silinskaia
Barrett Strickland
Josh Manning
May 13:
Aithne Sheng-Ying
John McCoy
Gabriel Carroll
Sachin Banker
Announced on 28 April 2009 2:40 p.m. by Florian Ederer
Presentation Dates
Please let me know by email your first preference to present on one of the following days:
Choice 1) April 29
Choice 2) May 6
Choice 3) May 13
Announced on 22 April 2009 4:23 p.m. by Florian Ederer
Rollover Minutes
I spoke to Michael Grubb yesterday and mentioned the question regarding the impact of rollover minutes that was raised in class. While his paper does not analyze this impact formally, he still had a few things to say which you might find interesting.
Consider the case where the agent signs up for a 12 month contract before knowing his type. All uncertainty is resolved after the first month when the agent learns his type for sure and thus the firm will also find out in equilibrium through the agent's choice of contract. If the agent is initially overoptimistic (i.e., he gets the mean of the type distribution wrong), then he will consistently overuse the number of minutes he has. If the agent at least gets the mean right, but is overconfident (i.e., he underestimates the variance), then rollover minutes will actually be beneficial for the agent as it protects him from the nasty convexity of the pricing schedule.
Best,
Florian
Announced on 17 April 2009 12:27 p.m. by Florian Ederer
Corrected Handouts for Recitation
I updated the recitation notes for the papers we discussed today in class. You can download them from the Stellar website.
Best,
Florian
Announced on 15 April 2009 8:24 p.m. by Florian Ederer
Written assignment for March 11 class
Hello.As I mentioned last week, Andrei Shleifer from Harvard Econ will visit the class on March 11, to present/discuss his bounded rationality working paper "What comes to mind."
I would like everyone to submit a short (1-3 pages) report on the paper. Think of yourself as a referee writing to the journal editors (i.e., Florian and me). Don’t take up space summarizing the paper. Focus on criticisms, suggested changes or different applications.
Please email your report to Florian and me by 9AM Wednesday morning, as a word or pdf attachment with “Shleifer report” in the heading.
We will share these reports with Andrei. However, it’s up to you if you want to sign your report. We will not post them.
There is also a background reading for the March 11 class, "Maps of Bounded Rationality, Kahneman, Am. Ec. Review 2003. It is a review piece (derived from his Nobel lecture). Feel free to skip sections dealing with material that we have covered already (Sec. III and IV principally).
Announced on 04 March 2009 2:25 p.m. by Drazen Prelec
