About This Course

This course integrates insights from psychology and the social sciences with economics, moving beyond the traditional assumption of fully rational individuals. It examines systematic deviations in human behavior such as cognitive biases, bounded rationality, and social preferences and applies these findings to labor economics, public economics, health economics, finance, industrial organization, and development economics. The goal is to equip students with both the theoretical foundations and the practical ability to design policies and research incorporating behavioral insights.

Prerequisites

Because this course studies deviations from mainstream economic models, a solid understanding of those models is essential. Therefore, 14.01 Principles of Microeconomics, or an equivalent introductory microeconomics course, is a prerequisite.

Instructor

Frank Schilbach is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), specializing in behavioral and development economics. His research explores the cognitive and behavioral dimensions of poverty, examining how “mental stress, sleep deprivation, substance use, and barriers to information diffusion” shape the economic decisions of individuals living in poverty.

Schilbach received his PhD in Economics from Harvard University in 2015. He previously completed a Diploma in Economics at the University of Mannheim and a master’s degree in economics at the University of California, Berkeley.

At MIT, he co-directs the Behavioral Development Lab in India alongside Gautam Rao and Heather Schofield. He is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and a research affiliate at J-PAL, CEPR, and BREAD.