Behavioural Approaches to Sustainability Challenges

Content

The course content is divided into three parts.

• The first part focuses on voluntary contributions to public goods, and the sustainable use of common pool resources. We investigate, from a behavioral economic perspective, the potential for cooperation and self-organization, discussing how institutional design can foster positive outcomes.
• In the second part we delve into the essential role of trust in facilitating exchanges within and across societies. Through the examination of behavior in dictator and bargaining games, we explore concepts of fairness, equity, and distributional preferences. This section emphasizes understanding how fairness, trust and reciprocity underpin social and economic interactions.
• The third part of the course is concerned with identifying behavioral biases in individual decision-making and measuring “econographics”—traits or trait-like behaviors related to economic decision-making, such as norm compliance, social preferences, risk preferences, and time preferences. We consider empirical relationships among these measures and discuss how this knowledge might be applied. Additionally, we take cultural differences and their impact on economic behavior into account.

Each part of the course integrates theoretical and empirical insights with practical applications, providing a comprehensive understanding of how behavioral economics can address issues of sustainable development and societal well-being

Learning outcomes

Students acquire the following competencies related to sustainability:

• They become proficient in presenting social interactions through game-theoretical models.
• They develop the ability to analyze simple game-theoretical models.
• They gain knowledge of typical behavioral patterns and explanations of real human behavior in these games.
• They understand the factors that can influence behavior within these games.
• They become acquainted with behavioral biases in individual decision making.
• They become acquainted with measuring “econographics” and their potential impact on economic behavior.
• They learn to apply theoretical models and behavioral economic insights to issues of environmental and social sustainability.

Programme

First Phase—on-site week 6th-10th October 2025 at the University of Göttingen
Mornings: Students participate in experiments and engage in discussions about their experiences. This is followed by introductions to theoretical issues and findings from previous experiments. Given the diverse experimental methods used in the course, there is ample opportunity to discuss methodological issues.
Afternoons: Students will work in international groups on assigned tasks, with results presented and discussed at the end of each day.

Second Phase—virtual (13th October 2025- 31st January 2026):
Students return to their home universities and continue working in remote international teams to design new experimental projects addressing sustainability questions of their choice. Each team will receive individual guidance from the project’s instructors (or their PhD students) in one-hour virtual meetings to take place every other week. By the end of January 2026, all teams and instructors get together in a virtual meeting, where all teams present their project proposals, which may potentially be implemented in future research collaboration.

The exact schedule will be sent to nominated students.

Assessment

Each student will submit within two weeks after the final group meeting their individual proposal of the project developed in their group.

After successful completion of the course, students will receive the Transcript of records.

Lecturers

Prof. Dr. Claudia Keser, University of Göttingen
Dr. Emmanuel Peterlé, University of Besançon
Dr. Richard Jong A Pin, University of Groningen
Dr. Johannes Schaaper, University of Bordeaux

Course dates

Onsite period: 6 -10 Oct 2025 in Göttingen

Online period: 13 Oct 2025 - 31 Jan 2026. Days and hours to be specified.

Students from all ENLIGHT partner universities are eligible to participate. Students will be selected at each of these universities separately. Students interested in the course need to apply via their home university. They should contact their faculty or programme to verify whether it can fit in their curriculum and to ensure academic recognition of the credits obtained. The home university will select the permitted number of students, inform the students as soon as possible, and then send these names to the host institution. Unsuccessful students will be placed on a waiting list and may get a place, if other universities do not use all their allocated places.

Please select your home university below and contact your ENLIGHT coordinator for further information on the application process or consult the linked information.

• University of the Basque Country: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• University of Bern: Application instructions for students at the University of Bern
• University of Bordeaux: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Comenius University Bratislava: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• University of Galway: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• Ghent University:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (see information about BIP's)
• University of Groningen: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
• University of Göttingen:  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (for BIP’s) or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. (other courses)
• University of Tartu: Application instructions for students at the University of Tartu
• Uppsala University: Application instructions for students at Uppsala University.

Prof. Dr. Claudia Keser, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.