BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
Academic year and teacher
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- Versione italiana
- Academic year
- 2022/2023
- Teacher
- SUSANNA MANCINELLI
- Credits
- 7
- Curriculum
- Green economy and sustainability
- Didactic period
- Secondo Semestre
- SSD
- SECS-P/01
Training objectives
- The aim of the course is the analysis of agents’ motivations towards the environment. Besides purely economic reward, other motives may induce people to engage in prosocial (and pro-environmental) behavior, that transcends the classic view of the wholly selfish, monetary motives of the human being. The utility function of people who act in favor of a common public good (as the environment) may be influenced by: the “warm glow” people perceive from their pro-social behavior; the dislike of inequality; the sense of reciprocity; the social norm and the reputational concerns.
At the end of the course the student is able to analyze which are the most suitable incentives to spur people pro-environmental behavior. Prerequisites
- Fundamental issues of an undergraduate course in microeconomics.
Attendance is strongly recommended (not compulsory). Course programme
- - First part (8 hours): Basic topics of game theory. Prisoner’s dilemma. Ultimatum game. Dictator game. Public goods game.
- Second part (4 hours): Experimental results on the games.
- Third part (4 hours): Fairness and social preferences.
- Fourth part (4 hours): Prospect Theory. Loss aversion and mental accounting.
- Fifth part (8 hours): Incentives to a pro-social/pro-environmental behavior. Extrinsic pecuniary incentives. Motivational incentives. The theory of nudges
- Sixth part (4 hours): Field experiments: what they are; how to design and run a field experiment.
- Seventh part (4 hours): firms’ behaviors in environmental innovation
- Eighth part (10 hours): waste management behavior. Analysis of individual motivations and incentives.
- Nineth part (10 hours): Energy and water saving behaviors. Analysis of individual motivations and incentives. Didactic methods
- Frontal lessons
Dedicated seminars
Presentations of papers
Team works
Current rules on teaching methods may change according to the evolution of the emergency COVID-19 Learning assessment procedures
- For students attending the course, the examination will be structured in two parts:
- 60% through individual (30%) and group works (30%)
- 40% through a final oral exam, to assess the knowledge of the topics taught during the course.
The final marking will be the weighted average of the two parts.
For students not attending the course, the exam will be a written test with three sections with open-ended questions. The written exam is devoted to test the achievement of the training objectives. The final marking will be the weighted average of the three parts.
The marking will range from 18/31 to 31/31 (cum laude) Reference texts
- Camerer, C. F., Loewenstein, G., & Rabin, M. (Eds.). (2011). Advances in behavioral economics. Princeton university press.
Gilli M., Nicolli F., Mancinelli S. (2018), Household Waste Management: Some Insights from Behavioural Economics, Palgrave Macmillan, London
Further material (included the slides) will available on google classroom
