Behavioral & Experimental Economics & Policy Laboratory

Dr. Natalia V. Czap ([email protected]), Director of the BEEP Lab

Associate Professor of Economics

Department of Social Sciences

University of Michigan-Dearborn

Research Interests: Behavioral Economics & Economic Psychology, Experimental Economics, Behavioral Public Policy, Environmental Economics

Dr. Hans J Czap ([email protected]), Associate Director of the BEEP Lab

Assistant Professor of Economics

Department of Social Sciences

University of Michigan-Dearborn

Research Interests: Environmental Economics, Industrial Organization, Experimental Economics, Economic Development

Dr. Simanti Banerjee ([email protected])

Assistant Professor

Department of Agricultural Economics

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Research Interests: Experimental & Behavioral Economics, Ecosystem Services Conservation & Management, Charitable Giving, Social Network & Game Theory, Neuroeconomics

Dr. Mark E. Burbach ([email protected])

Geoscientist, Conservation & Survey Division

School of Natural Resources

University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Research Interests: Human Dimensions of Natural Resource Management, Humans and the Environment, Water Management, Environmental Leadership

Dr. Marianna Khachaturyan ([email protected])

Independent Researcher

Brazil

Research Interests: Behavioral Economics, Experimental Economics, Feminist and Gender Economics, Environmental Economics

Dr. Kanybek Nur-tegin ([email protected])

Associate Professor of Economics

Honor’s College

Florida Atlantic University

Research Interests: Tax Compliance, Economics of Corruption, Economics of Political Regimes

Ante Busic-Sontic ([email protected])

PhD researcher

Department of Land Economy University of Cambridge

Research Interests: Environmental Economics, Energy Efficiency in Building, Personality Traits

Publications in peer-reviewed journals:

Czap, H.J., Czap, N.V., Burbach, M.E., Lynne, G.D., 2016.  Farm Bill 2014: An experimental investigation of conservation compliance, Journal of Sustainable Development, 9(3): 23-38.

Czap, N.V., Czap, H.J., Lynne, G.D., Burbach, M.E. 2015. Walk in my shoes: Nudging for empathy conservation, Ecological Economics, 118: 147-158.

Czap, N.V., Czap, H.J., Burbach, M.E., Lynne, G.D. 2014. Gender in environmental context: an effect of property rights, fines, and empathy nudging, International Journal of Economics and Finance, 6(7): 11-23.

Czap, N.V., Czap, H.J., Khachaturyan, M., Burbach, M.E., Lynne, G.D. 2013. J or L: The effect of emotions and framing in a downstream water pollution game, International Journal of Economics and Finance, 5(3): 9-23.

Czap, N.V., Czap, H.J., Khachaturyan, M., Lynne, G.D., Burbach, M. 2012. Walking in the shoes of others: Experimental testing of dual-interest and empathy in environmental choice, Journal of Socio-Economics, 41(5): 642-653.

Czap, H.J., Czap, N.V. 2011. Donating-selling tradeoffs and the influence of leaders in the environmental goods game. Journal of Socio-Economics, 40(6): 743-752.

Sautter, J., Czap N.V., Kruse, C., Lynne, G. 2011. Farmers’ decisions regarding carbon sequestration: a metaeconomic view. Society and Natural Resources, 24(2): 133-147.

Czap, H.J., Czap, N.V., Bonakdarian, E. 2010. Walk the talk? The effect of voting and excludability in public goods experiments. Economic Research International, vol. 2010, article ID 768546, 15 pages, doi:10.1155/2010/768546.

Czap, N.V., Czap, H.J., 2010. An experimental investigation of revealed environmental concern. Ecological Economics, 69(10): 2033-2041.

Bonakdarian, E., Czap, H.J. Czap, N.V. 2009. Selection of minimal variable subsets with the help of genetic algorithms in economic analysis. Journal of Interdisciplinary Economics, 21: 407-425.   

Ovchinnikova, N., Czap, H., Lynne, G., Larimer, C. 2009. “I don't want to be selling my soul”: two experiments in environmental economics. Journal of Socio-Economics, 38(2): 221-229. (NOTE: Ovchinnikova is the former last name of N. Czap)

Outreach publications:

Khachaturyan, M., Czap, N.V., Lynne, G.D. 2016. Downstream Pollution 2: Does Framing Affect Genders Differently? Cornhusker Economics: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension August 17.

Khachaturyan, M., Czap, N.V., Lynne, G.D. 2015. Downstream Pollution: Do Gender and Emotion Matter? Cornhusker Economics: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension September 23.

Czap, N., Czap, H., Lynne, G., Burbach, M., 2014. Empathy Conservation: What Did We Learn from the Experiments Testing the Metaeconomic Framework and Dual-interest Theory? Cornhusker Economics: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension August 21.

Czap, N., Czap, H., Lynne, G., Burbach, M., 2014. Gender in Conservation: Comparing the Effectiveness of Fines and Empathy Nudging. Cornhusker Economics: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension January 15.

Czap, H., Czap, N., Lynne, G., Burbach, M., 2013. Conservation Compliance under the House and Senate Versions of the 2013 Farm Bill: A Role for Empathy Nudging? Cornhusker Economics: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension August 14.

Czap, H., Czap, N., Lynne, G., Burbach, M., 2013. Who Should Own the Property Rights? Revisiting the Downstream Water Pollution Problem. Cornhusker Economics: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension February 6.

Czap, N., Czap, H., Lynne, G., Burbach, M., 2012. Inducing Empathy or Imposing a Fine? Finding Solutions to the Downstream Water Pollution Problem. Cornhusker Economics: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension September 5.

Czap, N., Czap, H., Khachaturyan, M., Burbach, M., Lynne, G., 2011. Do Emotions Matter in Environmental Choice? The Effect of J and L. Cornhusker Economics: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension May 4.

Khachaturyan, M., Lynne, G., Czap, N., Czap, H., Burbach, M., 2011. Empathy Tempering Economic Choice: The Empirical Evidence. Cornhusker Economics: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension January 12.

Ovchinnikova, N., G. Lynne. 2006. Reducing the pace of global warming:  can the Environmental Agency compete with the Climate Exchange in buying carbon offsets? Cornhusker Economics: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension August 23.

Policy publications:

Czap, N.V., Banerjee, S., Czap, H.J., Burbach, M.E., 2015. Empathy conservation: A field experiment on encouraging farmers’ participation in the Nebraska Conservation Stewardship Program. University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Open-File Report-129.

Czap, N.V., Czap, H.J., Lynne, G.D. Burbach, M.E., 2014. Empathy conservation: Experiments suggest a need for more attention in policymaking. CAFIO-Policy Research Group Pager #11, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Czap, H.J., Czap, N.V., Lynne, G.D. Burbach, M.E., 2013. 2013 Farm Bill: An experimental test of the Senate and House proposals. CAFIO-Policy Research Group Pager #7, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Czap, N.V., Czap, H.J., Lynne, G.D. Burbach, M.E., 2013. Empathy nudging increases conservation of farming land. CAFIO-Policy Research Group Pager #6, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Students interested in learning more about behavioral and experimental economics are invited to take these classes:

ECON 437/537. Behavioral Public Policy

This course teaches you to apply the insights from behavioral economics and psychology to public policy design.  Behavioral science cautions policy makers against the potential pitfalls of designing a policy based on the standard economic assumption of the rational agent model. Empirically based behavioral science also offers policy makers the opportunity to decrease the impact of psychological limitations of lazy or boundedly rational individuals. The ultimate goal is to make it easy and natural for ordinary people to make sensible choices in the short and long run through nudges, changes of default rules, simplification, disclosure, etc. while preserving complete freedom over the choices. In this course we consider several public policies that are informed by behavioral science research, such as the program “Save More Tomorrow” for retirement savings, household borrowing, health care, energy & fuel use, choice of nutrition, tax collection & compliance, and organ donations.

ECON 438/538. Behavioral Economics for Business and Economic Policy

This course is a reading intensive seminar on behavioral economics, which is the combination of psychology and economics that investigates what happens in markets in which some agents display human limitations and complications. The course focuses on the behavioral economics theory and its’ application to business practice and policy decision making. Specifically, in this course we: (1) examine the ways in which people deviate from the standard economics models, including irrationality, preferences for fairness, propensity to cooperate, trust, dual-interest, empathy, and emotions; (2) explore behavioral economics theories and models; (3) discuss how the behavioral economics theories and models can be applied to solve business and policy problems.