Behavioural Political Economy

Module description

Experiments in economics have generated new insights into how people behave. Together with earlier psychological work, they have spawned a new field in economics: behavioural economics. This module is concerned with how the insights from this new field contribute to some key debates and issues in political economy. In particular, we will examine how the experimental (and survey) evidence on behaviour contributes to the following questions.

• Was Hobbes right when arguing that in a State of Nature life would be ‘poor, nasty, brutish and short’? (In other words, do we always need a State to solve collective action problems?)
• Does inequality harm cooperation and trust?
• Was Rawls right when arguing that individuals would be guided by maxi-min from behind a veil of ignorance
• Was Mill right to argue that freedom is essential to wellbeing?
• Do markets discourage morality?
• Do men and women behave differently?
• Do other-regarding motives depend on the existence of groups?

Assessment details

1,000-word essay (30%) & 2-hour timed online exam (70%)

Assessment patterns are subject to change.

Semester 1 only students will be given an appropriate alternative assessment for in person January exams. Online exams will remain as they are.

Educational aims & objectives

Develop analytical and critical skills: specifically in relation to what is known about human behaviour in political economy settings from experiments and surveys in economics (and to a lesser extent psychology) and the associated policy debates

Learning outcomes

Successful students will be able to demonstrate:

• Advanced knowledge of theory and evidence regarding behaviour in prisoner dilemma/free rider problems (e.g. common resource and public goods problems).
• Advanced knowledge of theory and evidence regarding behaviour in bargaining problems.
• Advanced knowledge of theory and evidence regarding behaviour in coordination problems.
• An ability to assess the role of social influences (e.g. rules, norms and social preferences) and bounded rationality heuristics (e.g. reference dependence and loss aversion) on individual behaviour.
• Advanced knowledge of policy debates associated with using behavioural insights (e.g. 'nudging').

Module description disclaimer

King’s College London reviews the modules offered on a regular basis to provide up-to-date, innovative and relevant programmes of study. Therefore, modules offered may change. We suggest you keep an eye on the course finder on our website for updates.

Please note that modules with a practical component will be capped due to educational requirements, which may mean that we cannot guarantee a place to all students who elect to study this module.

Please note that the module descriptions above are related to the current academic year and are subject to change.