Course objectives#

Main course objective#

  • Students judge the pros and cons of different ways to answer research questions by means of applied microeconomic methods

Detailed course objectives: Methods#

  • Students understand the basic differences between design-based and model-based approaches to answering causal questions

  • Students understand the role of stylised facts for motivating research papers

  • Students understand the revealed preference paradigm

  • Students apply different means of explaining stylised facts

    1. Twist the data in all conceivable ways

    2. Run / exploit experiments

    3. Write down explicit model

  • Students analyse papers with respect to the assumptions they make with respect to the revealed preferences paradigm

  • Students analyse papers with respect to the approaches to causality they employ

Detailed course objectives: Substantive contents#

  • Students judge the importance of preference and belief heterogeneity in different contexts

  • Students understand various models of belief formation processes

  • Students analyse various models of discounting behaviour