Teaching
I believe we learn the best by experience. More so for economics. Over the years, I have experimented with different learning pedagogy at the principle-level course and for an elective course in applied behavioural economics.
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I have largely gotten rid of fully written assignments. Now they have become redundant in the era of GPTs. Having experimented last year, I plan to integrate AI into the assignments this year. More on this once I roll it out!
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Some of the assignment types are listed below. In addition, econ debates are part of every course when time permits.
When MBA students arrive, almost none believe that economics can be fun. And that economics is everywhere. Students need to feel the passion and the purpose.
Assignments that I give to my students:
Principles of Economics
EconSelfie
For several years now students have been enjoying the “Econ Selfie” assignment which helps them connect microeconomic theories with everyday life. By analyzing photos of daily life situation that they click, they learn to view the world through an economist’s lens. I use student selfies throughout the course to explain different economic conceptions and market structure. This reflection deepens as they reassess their insights from selfies over the course duration. As an instructor, I find that the analytics of selfies are very useful to
A popular economics blog Marginal Revolution linked the coverage of the assignment by fellow economist, Ashish Kulkarni.
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Link for marginal revolution - Marginal Revolution
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Link for Ashish Kulkarni -EFE
Video assignment - Market structure and Firm level analysis
This multi-part assignment requires industry research, market structure evaluation, competitive analysis between two firms’ competitive rivalry, and an oral/video presentation component involving the whole student group. The video format facilitates development of communication skills alongside applying economic concepts.
A key feature of the assignment is the interviews that students must do with consumers and producers in the chosen industry to understand how they perceive the industry's current state and how they make their respective decisions about a product purchase/sale, pricing, etc.
The analysis is presented as a video documentary, with all group members appearing on camera and narrating different portions of the presentation. Each student contributes by explaining part of the analysis verbally in the video submission.
Consumer Confidence Survey
Students learn to carry out a consumer confidence and inflation expectations survey to understand consumers’ expectations about the current and future state of the economy, incomes, prices, job situation. Each student surveys 15-20 individuals, and we then aggregate the surveys by each student at the section level (60 to 80 students) to provide a large enough sample to draw insights.
Applied Behavioural Economics
The Decision Diary
Students note down any of their two decisions for 10 days. After the first 5 days, they review the decisions and the factors that may have led to it (rational/behavioural/combination). After the 10 days, record a video of max 5 minutes, evaluating your experience (influence of system 1 v/s system 2 in your decision making, influence of habits, emotions, names of the biases, influence of others, patience or lack of it so on). Students then find it easier to relate to psychological and social influences on human behaviour.
Redesigning a website
Students redesign an existing company or NGO website by incorporating behavioral nudges. This hands-on approach helps behavioral economics principles stick. It allows students to take theoretical nudge concepts and actualize them through redesigning existing websites/user experiences. Iterating on existing sites, rather than starting from scratch, reflects how nudges are often deployed incrementally.
Original website
Conducting an experiment
Students conduct a 2x2 experiment examining the effects of classical economic incentives and behavioural nudges. One factor is a traditional incentive like a subsidy or tax on a particular good. The other factor involves implementing a behavioural nudge intervention. Alternatively, both factors could test different nudge techniques.
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The assignment is structured into multiple steps, incorporating feedback at each stage. This iterative process ensures students refine and correct the experimental design based on input received, before proceeding to the next step. In the final stage, students conduct the statistical analysis to test the effectiveness of nudges. Students either present in the class or record a video to explain the experiment outcomes.
Students choose a wide variety of topics that I would not have thought of as an instructor. For example, many students use dating platforms. One of the groups wanted to test if the signals in terms of quality of education (name of higher education institution – a proxy for potential income) and about personality (affectionate behaviour signalled via a photo along with a pet) matter for the time spent on exploring the profile on the dating websites. Guess what did they find?!
A interersting take from a student (Tanya Agrawal)
Original Post:- https://www.linkedin.com/posts/agrawal-tanya_behavioral-economics-greatlakesinstituteofmanagement-activity-6921803781772898304-OcCA/?amp;utm_medium=member_desktop