Economics 1030, "Economics and Psychology"

Like star professors? Well, you’ve found the right class. Economics 1030, “Psychology and Economics,” is taught by not one, but two very well-known Harvard professors: David Laibson and Andrei Shleifer. You’ll recognize Laibson, a rising star within University politics and already prominent within the world of economics, from his famous “printers and ink cartridges” Ec10 lecture on hidden costs and the economic irrationality of individuals. Andrei Shleifer, on the other hand, is infamous for his alleged improprieties in dealings with government contracts in Russia and his close relationship with former University President Lawrence H. Summers. Apart from that, Shleifer is a heavyweight in the world of behavioral finance and much of said portion of the class can be traced directly back to his research.



While Laibson’s half of the course is arguably a longer, albeit, more in depth, version of his Ec 10 lecture, its real value emerges in the question and answer sessions. These can often last as long as half of the class time and Laibson does an impressive job of intelligently and intuitively answering every question while maintaining the attention of students. Laibson is surprisingly accessible to students and is not afraid to crack a joke or two in class.



Shleifer, in stark contrast, comes off as much more dry and less approachable. This distinction comes from his frank and unaffected demeanor in lecture and the boring course material doesn’t help.



Unfortunately, the TFs for this class vary in quality as widely as Michael Jackson does in appearance. Most recently, the class was TF’d by two highly unintelligible economics graduate students. As a result, sections became the place to go if you wanted to become more confused about the material. Problem sets, while interesting and eye-opening, took hours due to the lack of quality TFs. Exams, however, were straightforward restatements of the problem sets and did not provoke worry.



N.B.: If you are a non-Economics concentrator and want a version of Psych and Ec with less Ec and more paper writing, check out Sendhil Mullainathan’s Ec1035, “Policy Applications of Psychology and Economics.” Mullainathan is also very prominent in the world of behavioral economics and has received sky-high CUE ratings for his teaching abilities. Course veterans have called the course an “easy A.”