By Вen Li
The Canadian Foundation for Innovation and the Alberta Science and Research Investments Program announced the establishment of a new economics lab last week.
Scheduled to open in January 2003, the $415,000 lab will enable researchers to study how behaviour in the financial marketplace and towards the environment are affected by gener, culture and social norms, according to project leader Robert Oxoby.
“Our interests are based on the understanding of what makes people tick,” said Oxoby. “Because people can rationalize their beliefs in strange ways, tax systems and economic policies need to take into account individual biases, personal weaknesses and self-control problems in dthe decision-making process.”
“Economic models and theories have a lot to offer, but they also have many limitations. The creation of this lab will help push those limits, enriching the way we think about human behaviour,” he continued.