This is a 2-weeks course that will provide the students with concepts and tools to design, assess and implement public policies grounded on behavioural insights.

We are targeting advanced students i.e. 6th semester onwards and post-graduate students in economics, sociology, political sciences, psychology, statistics, government and business. Worldwide social sciences and business lecturers and professors are also welcome. We also encourage NGO and public officials to participate, as well as private sector professionals in charge of behavioural oriented policies.

Classes will take place at Universidad del Valle (Cali), from Monday to Friday, between 17:00 to 20:00.

We expect participants to read the suggested literature before each class, as they might be asked to deliver short presentations that will be followed by plenary discussions.

Monday (week 1): Competition policy and consumers

1. Epley, N., Mak, D., & Idson, L. C. (2006). Bonus of rebate?: The impact of income framing on spending and saving. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 19(3), 213-227.

2. Lee, C. Y., Morewedge, C. K., Hochman, G., & Ariely, D. (2019). Small Probabilistic Discounts Stimulate Spending: Pain of Paying in Price Promotions. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 4(2),

3. Tremblay, C. H. (2018). Neuroeconomic studies in industrial organization: brand, advertising and price effects on consumer valuation and choice. In Handbook of Behavioral Industrial Organization. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Tuesday (week 1): Financial advice and bubbles

1. Eckel, C. C. and Füllbrunn, S. C. (2015). Thar she blows? Gender, competition, and bubbles in experimental asset markets. The American Economic Review, 105(2), 906-920.

2. Kleinlercher, D., Huber, J., & Kirchler, M. (2014). The impact of different incentive schemes on asset prices. European Economic Review, 68, 137-150.

3. Weitzel, U., Huber, C., Huber, J., Kirchler, M., Lindner, F., & Rose, J. (2019). Bubbles and financial professionals, Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming

Wednesday (week 1): Retail investment and information

1. Chater, N., Huck, S., and Inderst, R. (2010). Consumer decision-making in retail investment services: A behavioral economics perspective. Report to the European Commission/SANCO.

2. Glazebrook, K., Larkin, C., & Costa, E. (2017). Improving engagement with pension decisions, Behavioural Insights Team, October 2017

3. Hillenbrand, A., & Schmelzer, A. (2017). Beyond information: Disclosure, distracted attention, and investor behavior. Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, 16, 14-21.

Thursday (week 1): Tax compliance and honesty

1. Hallsworth, M., List, J. A., Metcalfe, R. D., & Vlaev, I. (2017). The behavioralist as tax collector: Using natural field experiments to enhance tax compliance. Journal of Public Economics, 148, 14-31

2. Kettle, S., Hernandez, M., Ruda, S., & Sanderson, M. A. (2016). Behavioral interventions in tax compliance: evidence from Guatemala. World Bank Policy Research WP 7690

3. Hernandez, M., Jamison, J., Korczyc, E., Mazar, N., and Sormani, R. (2017). Applying Behavioral Insights to Improve Tax Collection. International Bank for Reconstruction and Development-World Bank.

Friday (week 1): Corruption and call to service

1. Banuri, S., & Keefer, P. (2016). Pro-social motivation, effort and the call to public service. European Economic Review, 83, 139-164.

2. Gächter, S., & Schulz, J. F. (2016). Intrinsic honesty and the prevalence of rule violations across societies. Nature, 531(7595), 496

3. Fisman, R. and E. Miguel (2007). Corruption, Norms and Legal Enforcement. Evidence from Diplomatic Parking Tickets. Journal of Political Economy. 115, 6, 1020-1048.

Monday (week 2): Environmental policies

1. Allcott, H. & Kessler, J. B.(2019). The welfare effects of nudges: A case study of energy use social comparisons. American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, 11(1), 236-76.

2. Costa, D. L., Kahn, M. E. (2013). Energy conservation “nudge” and environmentalist ideology: evidence from a randomized residential field experiment. Journal of the European Economic Association 11, 680–702.

3. Farrow, K., Grolleau, G., & Ibanez, L. (2017). Social norms and pro-environmental behavior: A review of the evidence. Ecological Economics, 140, 1-13.

Tuesday (week 2): Healthy habits

1. Bleich, S. N., Economos, C. D., Spiker, M. L., Vercammen, K. A., VanEpps, E. M., Block, J. P., & Roberto, C. A. (2017). A systematic review of calorie labeling and modified calorie labeling interventions: impact on consumer and restaurant behavior. Obesity, 25(12), 2018-2044.

2. Peters, J., Beck, J., Lande, J., Pan, Z., Cardel, M., Ayoob, K., and Hill, J. O. (2016). Using healthy defaults in Walt Disney World restaurants to improve nutritional choices. Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, 1(1), 92-103.

3. Thunström, L. (2019). Welfare effects of nudges: The emotional tax of calorie menu labeling. Judgment and Decision Making, 14(1), 11.

Wednesday (week 2): Scarcity and poverty

1. Bryan, C. J., Mazar, N., Jamison, J., Braithwaite, J., Dechausay, N., Fishbane, A. & Karlan, D. (2017). Overcoming behavioral obstacles to escaping poverty. Behavioral Science & Policy, 3(1), 80-91.

2. Haushofer, J., & Fehr, E. (2014). On the psychology of poverty. Science, 344(6186), 862-867.

3. Shah, A. K., Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2012). Some consequences of having too little. Science, 338(6107), 682-685.

Thursday (week 2): Development challenges

1. Banerjee, A., Hanna, R., Kyle, J. C., Olken, B. A., & Sumarto, S. (2015). The power of transparency: Information, identification cards and food subsidy programs in Indonesia (No. w20923). National Bureau of Economic Research.

2. Björkman, M., & Svensson, J. (2010). When is community-based monitoring effective? Evidence from a randomized experiment in primary health in Uganda. Journal of the European Economic Association, 8(2-3), 571-581

3. World Bank (2015).¨The biases of development professionals¨, in Mind, Society and Behavior. 2015 World Development Report, Washington DC. Ch. 10.

Friday (week 2): Behavior and conflict

1. Bauer, M., Cassar, A., Chytilová, J. and Henrich, J. (2014). War’s enduring effects on the development of egalitarian motivations and in-group biases. Psychological science, 25(1), 47-57.

2. Bogliacino, F., Grimalda, G., Ortoleva, P. and Ring, P. (2017). Exposure to and recall of violence reduce short-term memory and cognitive control. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 201704651.

3. Callen, M., Isaqzadeh, M., Long, J. D., & Sprenger, C. (2014). Violence and risk preference: Experimental evidence from Afghanistan. American Economic Review, 104(1), 123-48

Please, mind that this advanced training only provides 60 places. Regardless your background, you would need to fill an application form for our academic committee to be able to make a decision

Application deadline: 1st of July 2019

Acceptance confirmation: 5th of July 2019

Training: 15th to 26th of July

We will provide 30 full scholarships for Univalle students and Faculty members.

Fees for non-scholarship holders*:

• Students: $400,000 (COP)
• Faculty and practitioners: $600,000 (COP)

The university will also provide 4 accommodation scholarships for PhD students visiting us from outside Cali or nearby municipalities.

*Payment instructions will be provided in this website in due time

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