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Bergen Summer Research School
BSRS 2017

Understanding behavior to understand development

Have you ever participated in an experiment before? In this lecture, we invite you to take part in one.

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Sandra Halvorsen
PhD Candidate, NHH

Ingrid Hoem Sjursen
PhD Candidate, NHH

As behavioral economists, we use experimental methods and insights from economics and psychology to understand how people make decisions.

The aim of this session is to introduce you to the field of behavioral economics and illustrate how it can be used to shed light on important questions in development: How can the poor access credit, save more, and vote more in elections? And how can we increase compliance with HIV treatment and utilization of mosquito nets to prevent malaria? 

We will conduct an in-class experiment and provide examples from our own research in Ethiopia and Tanzania.