Are people held responsible for bad choices they make because of detrimental circumstances? How do laypeople’s views of the economy differ from expert opinions? And why does this matter for policymakers?
In this video, briq Postdoc Peter Andre talks about how people make sense of the economic world around them – and how these insights can help address policy challenges, such as the recent surge in inflation.
Belief-based decisions are not only relevant for individual economic outcomes but may also have important effects on the economy as a whole. This is why belief formation is an important area of study for economists. briq has supported pioneering research on this topic, for example through workshops with leading international scholars (see the 2019 report and the program of the 2021 “Beliefs” workshop which took place in early May) and an ERC-supported project led by briq Research Director Florian Zimmermann.
In a video produced by Latest Thinking, Zimmermann explores the role that memory plays in belief formation. In particular, he studies associative recall, the way in which the recall of memory trace is triggered by cues that are mentally associated with that trace.
His experiment involves participants being provided with information (positive and negative) about hypothetical companies. After a time lapse, they are asked to assess the values of these companies. The research shows that respondents consistently overreact to the last piece of information that they receive. It also presents a new experimental paradigm for studying the role that associative recall and other memory imperfections play in the process of belief formation.
How much inequality in the labor market can be linked to differences in early childhood circumstances? How do parent-child interactions influence language development? briq Visiting Professor Flávio Cunha talks about what we know and don’t know about human capital formation – and why he gave up his original plan to do a PhD in macro and finance. This video was made while Flavio was visiting briq in 2019.
How do people form and update their beliefs? Leonardo Bursztyn talks about his own work on misperceived social norms, and about future avenues for field research into how people select and process information. This video was made while Leo was visiting briq in 2019.
How can insights from behavioral economics be used to make development policies and poverty alleviation more effective? Joshua Dean talks about his own research on early childhood education, the role of incentives in public health, and the broader question how to design policies that take into account the cognitive restraints that citizens face. This video was made while Josh was a post-doc at briq in 2019.
How does “visibility” affect your career? What can we learn from Delhi school children about prosociality? And what can behavioral economics tell us about the origins of people’s biases and preferences?
Matt Lowe provides some answers in this video, which was made while he was a post-doc at briq in 2019.