Essays in Behavioral Public Economics

Abstract

This dissertation aims at the identification of systematic behavioral biases that are relevant in the context of economic policy. In total, the dissertation consists of four chapters. In each chapter, we empirically analyze in a specific environment how individuals make economic decisions. We find in all chapters that, on average, human behavior is neither perfectly rational, nor completely random. On the one hand, there is always a relatively large share of people behaving in line with standard economic theory. On the other hand, we find in all our settings that a substantial share of people deviates from the predictions of standard theory. Most importantly, we find that deviations from the standard model are systematic. A large share of people acts in accordance with behavioral theories that are well-known from the literature on bounded rationality and from cognitive psychology. Our empirical approach allows us to categorize the different types of behavior in the data. Taken together, this dissertation provides an insight into behavioral patterns of decision-making in a number of economic domains. The findings often have straightforward implications for the design of public policy, as will be discussed in the respective chapters.<br />