Paul Zak
Claremont U. and Loma Linda U.

Zak

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(Friday, 6th May 2005)

Title : Neuroeconomics, Human behavior and Institutions

This talk will survey the new field of neuroeconomics (the use of neuroscientific measurement techniques to characterize how economic decisions are made). One of the most powerful applications of neuroeconomics is in the design of institutions, and this will be part of the talk, too.  For example: understanding why individuals respond differently to the same set of incentives is essential to efficient institutional design, and neuroeconomics has provided many new insights into this question.

Bibliographical references :

Paul J. Zak [2004], "Neuroeconomics" in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Biology, London, vol. 359, 1737–1748

Paul J. Zak [2003] "Trust", Capco Institute Journal of Financial Transformation, vol.7, 13-21