Faculty First Year Seminars 197ECON5 - The Power of Free: Causes and
Fall
2014
01
1.00
Diane Flaherty
TH 11:30AM 12:20PM
UMass Amherst
79694
This seminar will examine the concepts of rationality and irrationality in economics with reference to how consumers make decisions in the
market. From the perspective of behavioral economics, we will explore first how people form identities from individual experience and social norms and how these identities affect their decisions as consumers. For example, consumers make different decisions depending upon the social context in which they decide. People also react `irrationally? in the face of free goods. Both of these behaviors leave consumers open to being influenced by the way advertisements frame alternative choices.
The second part of the course will examine the ways in which our decisions affect the economy as a whole. This section includes analysis of links between irrationality in decision-making and economic crisis, unemployment, poverty and discrimination in the labor market.
market. From the perspective of behavioral economics, we will explore first how people form identities from individual experience and social norms and how these identities affect their decisions as consumers. For example, consumers make different decisions depending upon the social context in which they decide. People also react `irrationally? in the face of free goods. Both of these behaviors leave consumers open to being influenced by the way advertisements frame alternative choices.
The second part of the course will examine the ways in which our decisions affect the economy as a whole. This section includes analysis of links between irrationality in decision-making and economic crisis, unemployment, poverty and discrimination in the labor market.
Freshmen Only