The O’Donnell Center for Behavioral Economics aims to broaden the reach of behavioral economics. In particular, to foster novel research agendas, the center is home to the Behavioral Economics 3.0 IdeasHub.
The Behavioral Economics 3.0 IdeasHub provides an opportunity for faculty, graduate students, and young researchers to explore evidence and insights from fields outside of economics, such as biology, neuroscience, and psychology.
A list of readings for each semester is provided at the end of this article.
Interested?
The Behavioral Economics 3.0 IdeasHub is open to UC Berkeley PhD students who are able to commit to the time and assignments. The Group meets for one hour roughly every other week. In addition to completing the assigned readings, all participants are expected to submit three slides capturing the readings’ main take-aways, results, and relevance for economics research a day prior to the meeting.
Due to growing interest, the Center is exploring avenues to open selected meetings to a wider audience. Apply here
Past Readings
March 5
Bayesian Models of Cognition: Chapters 1 and 7
March 19
- McLaughlin et al., “Causal Effects of the Early Caregiving Environment on Development of Stress Response Systems in Children“, 2015 PNAS
- Nelson et al., “How Early Experience Shapes Human Development: The Case of Psychosocial Deprivation“, 2019 Neural Plasticity
- Bucharest Early Intervention Project
April 2
- Undurraga et al., “Child stunting is associated with weaker human capital among native Amazonians (2018)”, American Journal of Human Biology 30 (1)
- Orticio et al., “Children flexibly adapt their evidentiary standards to their informational environment (2023)”, Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society 45 (45)
- Orticio et al., “Beliefs are most swayed by social prevalence under uncertainty (2021), Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
April 16
Guest speaker: Professor William Thompson
- Thompson et al, Complex Cognitive Algorithms Preserved by Selective Social Learning in Experimental Populations, Science 376, 95-98 (2022)
- Griffiths, Understanding Human Intelligence through Human Limitations, Trends in Cognitive Science 24, 873-883 (2020)
April 30
- Belsky et al, Genetic analysis of social-class mobility in five longitudinal studies, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115 (31) (2018)
Background Readings
- Chapter 9, paragraph “Disruption in Parenting” of the book “From Neurons to Neighborhood: The Science of Early Childhood Development”
- Gunnar and Quevedo, “The Neurobiology of Stress and Development”, 2005 Annual Review of Psychology
Oct 2
Oct 16
Dec 4
The Gray Area with Sean Hilling (podcast), Episode: Your Mind Needs Chaos
May 23
- Poverty, Depression, and Anxiety: Causal Evidence & Mechanisms (Ridley, Rao, et al)
- Cognitive Models of Depression (Beck)
May 9
- Social Media & Mental Health, Braghieri et al
- Surgeon General Advisory, Social Media & Youth mental health
- Surgeon General Warns that Social Media May Harm Children & Adolescents, NYT
- The Great Rewiring, Unplugged (Nature)