課程資訊
課程名稱
 神經經濟學專題
Topics in Neuroeconomics 
開課學期
 105-2 
授課對象
 理學院  心理學研究所  
授課教師
 黃貞穎 
課號
 ECON5077 
課程識別碼
 323 U8100 
班次
  
學分
 2.0 
全/半年
 半年 
必/選修
 選修 
上課時間
 星期四3,4(10:20~12:10) 
上課地點
 社科302 
備註
 跨領域共授課程。與葉俊毅合開
限學士班三年級以上 或 限碩士班以上
總人數上限：60人 
Ceiba 課程網頁
 http://ceiba.ntu.edu.tw/1052ECON5077_ 
課程簡介影片
 
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課程大綱
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課程概述

This is a topics course on neuroeconomics. According to the Wikipedia, “neuroeconomics combines neuroscience, economics, and psychology to study how people make decisions. It looks at the role of the brain when we evaluate decisions, categorize risks and rewards, and interact with each other.” Together we will read a set of papers which would serve as an introduction to some of the fun themes in the field. 

課程目標
 Our goal is that each of us will get a rough feel about what is going on in the field and be able to ask an interesting research question. Since it is a topics course, we would hope students won’t hesitate to speak up. Understanding a paper is the first step. Being able to criticize scientifically may be the next. The third big step is to become so motivated to start your own research. That is where you get the most fun, but unfortunately, you may have to go through the previous two steps of laboring before arriving there. 
課程要求
 Each week we will be discussing a particular topic. For that topic, there will be one paper which we will focus on. A group of students will make a presentation about that paper.

In your presentation you should discuss clearly the research question asked, the experimental design (and the model if there is one), the result, whether you are convinced with the interpretation of the result in the paper, whether you will run the experiment differently and whatever interests, excites or confuses you when you read the paper. You are required to propose a new experiment based on what you have learned. The thought could be very rough, but this should push you to think deeper. Please be aware that some papers are very short (especially the papers in magazines such as Nature, Science or PNAS), but they could have a very long supporting material. You need to read the supporting materials carefully too, in order to have a solid understanding. You are required to talk to the course TA responsible for the paper that week to make sure your understanding.

Each year we have a different focus. This year we will read about time. In particular, we want to understand time discounting and time perception. The big question we have in mind is are they similar? The papers include human fMRI experiments, human behavioral experiments, animal experiments (on monkeys and mice), just a little bit of theory and three review papers. You may ask why we care about animal behaviors or animal neural activities as economists? The official answer is if we know better the animal behaviors, we know which of our preferences are evolutionary and which are culturally transmitted. Moreover, experiments on animals are real compared with human experiments over hypothetical outcomes or with small stakes. And lastly the cruel truth is there are some physiology experiments that can be run on animals but are not possible on humans. If you still want the under-the-table answer: Well, these papers are just so fun that we will enjoy reading!

Your final grade will depend on your class presentation (50%) and class participation (50%). It is boring if no one asks questions/comments during a presentation. So after each class, please hand in a sheet detailing what questions/comments you have raised today. We will keep track of the number of times you speak up in the semester. We will then rank you according to the number of times you speak up as far as the grade on class participation is concerned.


As we learn from economic theory, what matters is the relative price, not the absolute price. Similarly, what matters are the relative times you speak up. So do SPEAK UP and join the discussion! We know that qualities are also important, so we reserve the right to adjust your grade. When you ask brilliant questions, make sure to look at us so that we get your point! (Discuss. Zuvio)
 
預期每週課後學習時數
  
Office Hours
  
指定閱讀
 待補 
參考書目
 待補 
評量方式
(僅供參考)
    
課程進度
週次
日期
單元主題
第1週
 2/23  Introduction 
第2週
 3/02  Isabelle Broces, Juan D. Carrillo, Jorge Tarraso (2016), “How long is a minute?” working paper.  
第3週
 3/09  Nicole Copper, Joseph W. Kable, B. Kyu Kim, and Gal Zauberman (2013), “Brain activity in valuation regions while thinking about the future predicts individual discount rates,” Journal of Neuroscience 33:13150-13156. 
第4週
 3/16  James Andreoni and Charles Sprenger (2012), “Estimating Time Preferences from Convex Budgets,” American Economic Review, 102(7):3333–3356. 
第5週
 3/23  Jose Luis Montiel Olea and Tomasz Strzalecki (2015), “Axiomatization and measurement of quasi-hyperbolic discounting,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1449-1499. 
第6週
 3/30  Sofia Soares, Bassam V. Atallah, and Joseph J. Paton (2016), “Midbrain dopamine neurons control judgment of time,” Science 354(6317):1273-1277. 
第7週
 4/06  Spring break, no class. 
第8週
 4/13  Mehrdad Jazayeri and Michael N. Shadlen (2015), “A Neural Mechanism for Sensing and Reproducing a Time Interval,” Current Biology 25:2599-2609. 
第9週
 4/20  Catalin V. Buhusi and Warren H. Meck (2005), “What makes us tick? Functional and Neural mechanisms of interval timing”, Nar Rew Neurosci 6:755-765. 
第10週
 4/27  B. J. Caseya, Leah H. Somervillea, Ian H. Gotlibb, Ozlem Aydukc, Nicholas T. Franklina, Mary K. Askrend, John Jonidesd, Marc G. Bermand, Nicole L. Wilsone, Theresa Teslovicha, Gary Gloverf, Vivian Zayasg, Walter Mischelh, and Yuichi Shoda (2011), “Behavioral and neural correlates of delay of gratification 40 years later,” PNAS 108: 14998–15003. 
第11週
 5/04  Shunsuke Kobayashi and Wolfram Schultz (2008), “Influence of Reward Delays on Responses of Dopamine Neurons,” Journal of Neuroscience 28, 7837-7846. 
第12週
 5/11  Dan Zakay (1990), “The evasive art of subjective time measurement: some methodological dilemmas,” Chapter 3 in Cognitive Models of Psychological Time (Edited by Richard A. Block). 
第13週
 5/18  Jonathan D. Cohen, Keith Marzilli Ericson, David Laibson, John Myles White (2016), “Measuring time preference,” NBER working paper. 
第14週
 5/25  Bastien Blain, Guillaume Hollard, and Mathias Pessiglionea (2016), “Neural mechanisms underlying the impact of daylong cognitive work on economic decisions,” PNAS 113:6967–6972. 
第15週
 6/01  Benjamin Y. Hayden (2016), “Time discounting and time preference in animals: A critical review,” Psychon Bull Rev 23:39–53. 
第16週
 6/08  Oded Galor and Omer Ozak (2016), “The Agricultural Origins of Time Preference,” American Economic Review 106 (10): 3063-3103. 
第17週
 6/15  Hal Hershfield, Daniel Goldstein, William Sharpe, Jesse Fox, Leo Yeykelis, Laura Carstensen, Jeremy Bailenson (2011), “Increasing Saving Behavior Through Age-Progressed Renderings of the Future Self,” Journal of Marketing Research 48: S23–S37. 
第18週
 6/22  Discussion