Specialization in Behavioral And Experimental Economics (BEE)
Behavioral economics is a productive and ongoing collaboration between Psychologists and Economists seeking to understand how people make risky decisions; everything from what seeds to plant to what assets to buy to how much we save. A good example is Prospect Theory developed by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, one reason Kahneman was the first Psychologist to win a Nobel Prize in Economics. Following Tversky’s untimely death in 1996 Professor Kahneman received the 2002 prize jointly with Vernon Smith, the pioneer of experimental economics, symbolizing further the fruitful collaboration of these disciplines. In the past decade behavioral economics has contributed to thousands of experiments and randomized trials involving decision makers from Uganda to Wall Street to London (where the UK set up a special office for policy applications of behavioral economics). Fordham GSAS is fortunate to several eminent researchers working in this area in Economics and Psychology (the 4th and 5th floor of Dealy Hall). This interdisciplinary specialization encourages MA students to take courses in both fields, including a new Summer survey course in Behavioral Economics.