Any behavioral economists out there?

[kmhickey]

Just curious if anyone out there has an interest in behavioral/experimental econ? I know there's a chance I could get strung up for saying it but any good scientist has to wonder why his/her models often don't mesh with the data. The idea of tossing out that fundamental and often unrealistic assumption that people are rational is certainly appealing. (I just read Winner's Curse by Thaler, which is what got me thinking)

[planetes]

I was actually going to do an independent study on this. I changed my mind though cause evo games are more fun imo.

Some guys at my UG are into this stuff - George Lowenstein is one of them. I think I participated in his experiments before.

You also might have a couple new people at Umich working on this. I think Caltech is big on experimental kinda stuff.

[KingOfConvenience]

then there's George Mason (Vernon Smith and Bart Wilson) and UVa (Charlie Holt).

[vagabond_shoes]

I'm totally into these subjects. I applied to NYU and finally accepted their offer because I think its one of the strengths of the program. There is a Center for experimental economics with people from the economics department (Schotter, Frechette among others), psychology and political science. There is also Andrew Caplin working on Behavioral economics and Rubinstein, Eliaz and others on Bounded Rationality. Have you read Rubinstein's comment on Behavioral Economics? It is a very interesting piece.

[euap]

If you are looking for experimental economists, then have look on Caltech's Social Sciences faculty - I think that it is the best place in the world for doing research in that field.
Luckily, I am joining them next Fall

As for methodological aspects of economics, I spent more than two years (my senior years during my economics masters) focusing on them, especially experimental economics. I needed to clarify many issues for myself, because as an physics major I considered economic theory as primarily devoted to mathematical rigour and elegance than to pursuing its own aim - to understand and explain real-world economic phenomena.
How can someone pursue economics research if the foundation upon which one is supposed to build is ... ?

And there is also EIPE - the Erasmus Institute of Philosophy and Economics in The Netherlands, a world-class institution with a fabulous people working there ...

[vagabond_shoes]

I agree that Caltech is the best place for these subjects. The only problem is that it is so much into them, that it is very weak in others.

[euap]

Originally Posted by vagabond_shoes

I agree that Caltech is the best place for these subjects. The only problem is that it is so much into them, that it is very weak in others.

yeah, that is true. And it is intentional!
You will not find macroeconomics or labour there. But on the other hand, Caltech has endeavoured into fields like experimental economic antrophology (J. Ensminger), social networks (M. Jackson) and various others: They have also a very unique interplay with formal political theory. And if someone wants to commence research in neuroeconomics, then ...

Moreover, Caltech is expanding its faculty (more econometrics and economic history, I think) and the size of its doctoral program as well.
As C. Camerer put it "Check out what we're doing now rather than waiting five or ten years for the Ivy League to catch up : ) )."

[vagabond_shoes]

I clearly understand it is intentional and that the program is expanding.No doubt Caltech is great and they seem to be on the edge of innovation. But you must be absolutely certain of your research interests to go there (which seems to be your case). Ahh and it is Colin Camerer you must be speaking of.

[TheBrothersKaramazov]

I have been doing research with some faculty in my dept at our experimental econ lab. I can't agree more that these experiments have such "rigged" assumptions and functions that generating naturally occuring behaviour seems improbable. (Though, i guess the same could be said about alot of economic theory). I think neuroeconomics - when it begins to develop more - will be really interesting!

From what I have seen in the past year, experimental econ can be (easily) learned in reasonable amount of time. What is more important is having a good theory background in micro, macro, or whatever strikes your fancy to test experimentally.

[HayakWasRight]

The further I get into the theory, the more I am intregued by experimental and behavioral economics. In both my environmental economics and game theory courses, we used online simulators provided by Virginia Tech and UVA. These included varieties of the ultimatum game, rock/paper/scissors, hawk/dove, and others, along with a tool that allows you to customize the game for your class. I don't have the link, but I'm sure you can find it on their department sites. We've spent innumerable hours in our game theory class on these games and the writings of Bowles. Also, if you couldn't guess by my user name, we read a lot of Hayak as well.