Cognitive Issues in Public Policy

In 2003, the Nobel Prize in economics was shared by a psychologist (Daniel Kahneman) for his leading role in establishing departures from narrowly rational choice as a recognized component of mainstream economics. The work by Kahneman and others has turned out to have application to many applied topics where judgment and intuition systematically departs from what might be expected in terms of formal logic. This course will survey a wide range of contexts in which cognitive issues have come to play a substantial role, with particular attention to public policy.