Winter Research Project
AT Economics / Winter Quarter Research Project Your task this quarter is to construct an experiment that will demonstrate something about daily economic behavior. You will work in pairs for this project. Stage 1: Define the question you want to ask. Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational , as well as the companion pieces The Upside of Irrationality and The Honest Truth About Dishonesty , provide examples of such initial questions: for instance, what effect does being “free” have on the attractiveness of a given item or set of items? To what extent are people’s choices about value based on “anchoring” from a popular brand or company, such as iTunes offering songs at $0.99? An alternative approach is to create a decision scenario based on “game theory.” Examples of such economic games can be found in chapter 20 of Colander’s Micro textbook. Stage 2: Define the method of answering your question. You will likely approach this stage as a series of questions that you po...