This event will kick-start our “On the Shoulders of Giants Series”, a series of speaker events, hosted by the Essex Humanist Students, covering a variety of scientific/academic topics in the hopes of 1) allowing laypeople and specialized people alike to learn about the kinds of advancements being made as well as keep up with the kinds of research being done in scientific and academic disciplines at the moment, 2) facilitating greater understanding of the methodology and values undergirding the scientific process and, in doing so, fostering a greater appreciation for academia and the sciences, and 3) allowing students who might potentially wish to engage in research to get a first look at the kinds of findings being established at the moment in their respective fields.
The first talk will be given by our university’s very own Professor Gianluigi Vernasca and will cover behavioral economics, a particular branch of the so-called "dismal science": economics, and will cover a variety of questions including why much of classical economics has been overturned by behavioral economics, what the behavioral sciences can add to our picture of economics, what the kinds of insights into economic decision-making, behavioral economics brings, what the concept of a nudge is, and how agents are influenced by different stimuli to make particular decisions. The talk will be followed by a discussion and Q&A.
Gianluigi Vernasca is a Professor of Economics at the University of Essex, and the Director of Education at the Department of Economics. He obtained a PhD in economics at the University of Warwick. Prior to joining the University of Essex he has taught at the University of Warwick, the University of Pavia and the University of York. Gianluigi is the co-author (with D. Begg) of the book Economics, edited by McGraw-Hill. His areas of research include industrial organization, game theory and inter-generational economics.
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