This course seeks to better understand how psychological variables affect economic outcomes. More specifically, we will focus on the psychological processes and biases underlying decision-making with an emphasis on how to incorporate such insights into marketing, management, and investment strategies. The course has two facets: first, it gives students a broad overview of important results from the behavioral sciences (e.g., social and cognitive psychology, consumer research) that show how people really make decisions (in contrast to the rational expectations model underlying classical economic theories); second, it provides students with practical advice about applying these findings to topics in marketing, management, and finance (with an approximately equal focus on each throughout the course). Topics covered include: risk, the time value of money, regression models, influence and persuasion, strategic interactions and game theory, and pricing techniques. Class time will be devoted to a combination of lectures, discussion, exercises, and casework. Grading will be based on class participation, individual case write-ups, and a final exam.

Vicki Morwitz

Bruce Greenwald Professor of Business

Vicki Morwitz is the Bruce Greenwald Professor of Business and Professor of Marketing at Columbia University's Graduate School of Business. Professor Morwitz earned a B.S in applied mathematics and computer science from Rutgers University, an M.S. in operations research from Polytechnic Institute of New York (now NYU’s Tandon School), and an M.A. in statistics and a Ph.D...

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