"The Experimental Mindset within Various Applied Fields of Economics," with Jason Shogren, University of Wyoming. Monday, November 5, 3:40 pm - 5:00 pm, 368A Heady Hall.

Jason Shogren is the Stroock Professor of Natural Resource Conservation and Management and Chair of the Department of Economics and Finance at the University of Wyoming, his alma mater. He works on the economics of environmental and natural resource policy. Shogren is a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, and has served as professor to the King of Sweden, a lead author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and as a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers in the White House. He likes music and fishing.

Abstract: Over the last two decades my research has used experimental economics to examine questions in applied micro policy, specifically focusing on how economics can help provide more environmental protection at less cost. The goal has been to explore how to create more effective incentive mechanisms and increase social well-being by a deeper understanding of the behavioral underpinnings of environmental policy. Environmental policy might well be more cost-effective if we understand the power and limits of rational choice models given institutional design and bounded rationality, self-interest, and willpower. The talk will review the general midset of experimental economics and discuss five experiments on the oath, social isolation, interval values, strategic self-ignorance, and TSARs.