Implications of Behavioral Economics for Economic Policy
Behavioral economics is motivated by a range of empirical facts that are at apparent odds with assumptions of standard economic theory. But while behavioral approaches are becoming common in academia, it is unclear how behavioral models should inform economic policymaking in general, and central banking in particular.  This conference discussed the implications of behavioral economics for macroeconomic policy, with special attention to the regulatory and monetary policy responsibilities of central banks.

NBER Macroeconomics and Individual Decision Making Conference
The Center supports the annual National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) research conference on Macroeconomics and Individual Decisionmaking. Each year, the Center provides a grant to the NBER to support the conference as organized by George Akerlof of Berkeley and Robert Shiller of Yale. Papers are available on the NBER's web site.

The Future of Life-Cycle Saving & Investing
This conference, co-sponsored by Boston University, the Boston Fed's Research Center for Behavioral Economics and Decisionmaking, and the CFA Institute's Research Foundation, brought together academic researchers, practitioners, and public-sector policymakers to discuss the current state of this science and to explore its implications for households, businesses, and government. The objective was to stimulate the adoption of best practices in the development of both new financial products and future public policies.

How Humans Behave: Implications for Economics and Economic Policy
The standard models of human behavior in economics, which assume that people are well-informed economic agents striving to maximize a set of consistent preferences, frequently produce patently faulty predictions. Attracted by recent work in behavioral economics, the Boston Federal Reserve Bank gathered economists, behavioral scientists, and policymakers for its forty-eighth economic conference with the expectation that applying insights from psychology and other behavioral disciplines would improve economists’ understanding of how people make decisions as individuals and—more relevant for policymakers— in the aggregate. The ultimate goal was to apply these insights to improve our economic models, our forecasts, and our economic policy decisions.