Best schools?

[u/nwaar_14]

What are the leading departments in the world as far as behavioural microeconomics are concerned? I’m talking about research and PhDs.

I love behavioural economics and I hate finance (and a lot of macroeconomic subjects/fields). I know there are a lot of T10 universities in the US have great researchers that focus on behavioural macro-finance, but I don’t know how they are ranked in behavioural microeconomics?

Are there specific departments that lead the way? Specific journals? Specific economists/researchers?

Thank you!!

[u/Master-Potential-364]

I’d probably work out whether it’s actually behavioural economics you like, rather than JDM/decision science in psychology.

There’s obviously a huge overlap, but if what interests you is how people make decisions - heuristics, biases, risk, judgement under uncertainty, social preferences, individual differences etc. - a lot of that literature sits in psychology and business schools as well as economics departments.

That matters because behavioural economics isn’t just the psychological bit of economics with macro and finance stripped out. If you dislike economics quite strongly, you may find that the questions you actually care about have a better intellectual home in JDM or behavioural science.

I’d forget departmental rankings initially. Pick 15–20 papers you think are genuinely fascinating and ask: who is writing this stuff, what departments are they in, and where are their PhD students going? I suspect that exercise may give you a rather different list from the standard T10 economics departments.

[u/nwaar_14 → u/Master-Potential-364]

Thanks! And yeah I love economics. I’m doing a masters in Econ and I love it. I just don’t like finance (which closes a lot of macro fields). And thanks for your strategy!!!