Environmental and Resource Economics – Module: Sustainability Applications of Behavioral Economics

Dates

28 April – 2 May 2025. Morning lecture and course related work in afternoon (Full time dedication)

Scope

The course “Environmental and Resource Economics” is offered as different independent modules. The upcoming module covers circular economy.

This module: Behavioral Environmental Economics

Addressing societal problems such as climate change, ecosystem damage, biodiversity loss, poverty, or social inequality requires transformative changes in the way societies use technologies, consume resources, and interact with each other. This transformation heavily relies on changes in individual and collective behavior. Behavioral economics (BE) is one of the most prominent subfields in social sciences. It challenges and extends the standard rational choice model used in economics, providing a more realistic depiction of the behavior of the “representative agent” that incorporates key insights from other social sciences, notably psychology and political sciences. This enhanced representative agent can then be used to produce policies that are more aligned with the inner workings of human decision-making and are therefore more apt to produce the desired transformations.

BE involves three groups of deviations from the standard rational choice model. These are bounded rationality, bounded willpower, and bounded self-interest. Understanding these behavioral deviations is what BE can bring to the table. Recognizing human heuristic and biases, and how these affect individual decision-making processes in the context of environmental and social dilemmas is a prerequisite for successful policy design. The power of BE is in informing and developing better environmental and resource management models and policies. Its findings and contribution are essential to test and design sustainability policies.

Assessment method

• Assessment is based on an individual research proposal of 3000-5000 words to be submitted the latest on May 9th, 2025, where each student will develop their own idea. Based on the research proposal and active participation in class students can earn 2 ECTS.
• It is possible to extend the course to 3 ECTS by submitting a complete pre-analysis plan (PAP) by May 9th, 2025. What is a complete PAP will be clear on day 1.

Learning goals

At the end of this course the student:

• Understands the applications of behavioral economics to environmental questions;
• Can identify biases in human decision-making emerging from risk, time, and social preferences;
• Can design a(n) (environmental) policy intervention with behavioral tools.

Contents

Topics

• Foundations of behavioral environmental economics
• Prospect theory, endowment and framing effects
• Time preferences, self-control problems, heuristics and biases
• Pro-social and pro-environmental behavior, and social norms
• Choice architecture
• Limitations of behavioral economics

Assumed knowledge

The course “Environmental and Resource Economics” is meant mainly for PhD candidates in economics and environmental sciences. Knowledge of “intermediate” microeconomics is beneficial, but selected readings will be provided so PhD-candidates without this pre-knowledge can follow the course. Essential methods on which the course builds will be introduced in the lectures. If in doubt whether this course is suitable for you, please send an email to the coordinator of the respective module.

Study materials

• Selected articles (available from electronic libraries)

Outline of the course

Classroom teaching on five mornings (lectures). Afternoons are reserved for finalizing the assignment in groups or individually1. Friday afternoon is reserved for consultation moments about the assignment with the teacher.

General information

Registration

Go to Registration form

Registration deadlines:

• Early bird:28 March 2025
• Regular: 4 April 2025

Course duration

The module is taught in Wageningen (WUR) in one week in the end of April 2025. It comprises classroom teaching on five mornings (lectures, exercises), Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Friday afternoon is reserved for feedback moments. The other afternoons are available for self-study and group work.

Credit points

2-3 ECTS

Language

English

Group size

12-25 people

Frequency

Once per year.

Fee

The course fee includes coffee, tea and lunch on all days.

The fee does not include accommodation, breakfast or dinner. Accommodation is not included in the fee of the course, but there are several possibilities in Wageningen. For information on B&B’s and hotels in Wageningen please visit proefwageningen.nl/overnachten. Another option is Short Stay Wageningen. Furthermore, Airbnb offers several rooms in the area. Note that besides the restaurants in Wageningen, there are also options to have dinner at Wageningen Campus.

Cancellation conditions

Up to 28 March, (first) cancellation is free of charge.
Up to two weeks prior to the start of the course (14 April), a fee of early bird reduced fee will be charged.

After this date you will be charged the full registration fee, unless:

• You can find someone to replace you in the course and supply the course coordinator with the name and contact information of your replacement. In this case you will only be charged a € 50,- cancellation fee.
• You have a valid reason to cancel (illness or death in the family 1st or 2nd degree). Your supervisor/PI must send a mail indicating the reason for cancellation. In this case you will only be charged a € 50,- cancellation fee.

Note: If you would like to cancel your registration, ALWAYS inform us. By NOT paying the participation fee, your registration is NOT automatically cancelled (and do note that you will be kept to the cancellation conditions).

Also note that when there are not enough participants, we can cancel the course. We will inform you if this is the case a week after the early bird deadline. Please take this into account when arranging your trip to the course (I.e. check the re-imburstment policies).