Over the last 30 years, psychologists and economists have joined forces to study how people process information and actually make decisions, rather than how they would make decisions if they were fully rational and selfish. The new field that this collaboration has spawned, dubbed behavioral economics, has provided an understanding of how people’s decisions deviate from “optimal” choices as well as the consequences of such deviations for consumers, managers, firms, and policy. This joint concentration between the Operations and Information Management Department and the Business Economics and Public Policy Department explores the behavioral aspects of economics and decision-making. The concentration provides students with the opportunity to develop an understanding of: (a) the neoclassical rational actor model, (b) modifications to that model which reflect the psychology that drives human behavior, and (c) implications of those modifications for decision-makers, markets and public policy.
Requirements for Concentration:
BEPP 220x: Behavioral Economics, Markets and Public Policy
OPIM 290: Decision Processes
Plus electives (2 CUs), at most one non-Wharton course:
BEPP 201: Introduction of Business Economics and Public Policy
BEPP 305: Risk Management
ECON 260: Decision Making
FNCE 239: Behavioral Finance
MKTG 211: Consumer Behavior
OPIM/BEPP 261: Risk Analysis and Environmental Management
OPIM 291: Negotiations
OPIM 292: Advanced Negotiations
PSYCH 253: Judgment and Decisions
Contact concentration advisors: Uri Simonsohn and Jeremy Tobacman