Empirical study relating macroeconomic literacy and rational thinking

Rachel Lipshits, Sagit Barel-Shaked, Uri Ben-Zion

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

We analyze macroeconomic literacy by insights from behavioral economics, while incorporating individual differences in gender, cognitive ability and academic institution. Our sample consists of economic students from two academic institutions in Israel. For statistical analysis, we used Generalized Estimating Equations (GEE). Our main finding is that high-level male students who are prone toward mental accounting have very accurate expectations of inflation, interest rate and unemployment, i.e. they are highly macroeconomic literate. Yet, we found no indication that rational thinkers are more literate than others.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)209-215
Number of pages7
JournalResearch in Economics
Volume73
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Sep 2019

Keywords

  • Behavioral economics
  • Generalized estimating equations
  • Loss aversion
  • Macroeconomic literacy
  • Mental accounting
  • Prospect theory

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Economics and Econometrics

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