Curriculum Overview - Master in Behavioral Economics

Curriculum Overview

Master of Science in Behavioral Economics

36 U.S. credits · 12 graduate courses · 100% online

The MS in Behavioral Economics puts human decision-making where orthodox economic theory never made room for it. The curriculum covers cognitive bias, neuromarketing, behavioral finance, people management, UX and behavioral design, public policy, and cultural economics — twelve courses with an applied lens across business, government, and finance sectors.

Master of Science Behavioral Economics 36 credits · 100% online · Licensed by Florida CIE #9097

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Master of Science in Behavioral Economics. 12 courses, 36 U.S. credit hours, 100% online. Licensed by the Florida Commission for Independent Education, License #9097.
Course	What you study
ISM 500Technological Learning Tools	The entry point into the program’s digital environment. Students learn to work in Moodle and Google Drive — online activities, discussion forums, shared documents with classmates and faculty — the tools that hold a fully online graduate degree together. It is brief by design, but everything that follows in the program depends on it.
ECO 505Origins and Fundamentals of Behavioral Economics	Behavioral economics did not appear out of nowhere — it emerged as a response to the failures of the classical rational-choice model. This course traces that history from its origins, introduces Prospect Theory, and examines how homo socialis reshaped the decision process, building the conceptual frame the rest of the program relies on.
PSY 510Biases and Heuristics Deep-Dive	More than 190 cognitive biases have been documented to date. This course works through them with rigor and interactivity, examining how they act against a decision-maker’s intentions and how interventions can be designed around them. Students collectively build a reference book of biases used as an analytical tool for the rest of the master’s.
PSY 615Psychology and Sociology in Behavioral Economics	Decisions are not made in a vacuum. They happen inside emotional states, social contexts, and psychological architectures shaped by personality, biology, and group dynamics. This course builds the psychological and sociological foundation behavioral economics requires — why people decide as they do alone, and why those decisions shift once other people are present.
MAR 520Behavioral Sales and Marketing	What neuromarketing and behavioral economics can do together for a brand, a value proposition, and a customer journey is the subject of this course. Students work with A/B testing, neuro-pricing, and narrative construction, drawing on real cases to understand how attention, preference, and customer loyalty actually form.
MAN 625User Experience & Behavioral Economics Project Management	Behavioral interventions require structured delivery. This course integrates UX methodology with the most tested behavioral frameworks — BASIC, EAST — teaching students to design, plan, and manage a behavioral economics project from problem definition through implementation, with a focus on producing real decision change.
FIN 530Behavioral Finance	Financial markets move on cognitive bias, emotional response, and psychological heuristics as much as on fundamentals. This course examines how behavioral finance explains irrational market outcomes, and how investors and advisors can apply behavioral principles to make better decisions and build more resilient financial strategies.
HRM 535Behavioral Management of Human Capital	Behavioral science turns people management from a compliance function into a performance one. This course applies behavioral principles to hiring, incentive systems, organizational change, and employee experience, with tools aimed at building better places to work.
ECO 640Behavioral Economics Culture and Future	Big data, AI, and neuroscience are multiplying the reach of behavioral economics. This course examines the emerging methodological frontier — cultural neuroscience, digital behavioral data — and the ethical implications of behavioral design at scale, asking where the discipline is headed and what responsibility a practitioner carries.
PAD 645Public and Service Policy	Behavioral economics has changed how governments design public policy. This course analyzes real interventions from the public sector that produced measurable change in health, education, taxation, climate behavior, and civic participation, building the competence to design, evaluate, and defend behavioral interventions in policy settings.
RSC 550Research and Scientific Communication	Academic rigor is not optional at the graduate level. This course covers the full research cycle: searching scientific databases, formatting bibliographic references, APA citation, and communicating findings through conference papers and scientific posters. The skills acquired feed directly into the Capstone and professional practice.
CAP 701Capstone Project	The Capstone integrates the program’s analytical and methodological framework into an applied piece of work developed under faculty supervision and defended before an academic panel. It is not an exam — it is a document that demonstrates command of the field and doubles as a professional portfolio piece.