Application of Behavioral Economics to Education

Ji Young Kim

Behavioral economics concepts can advance understanding, predicting, and controlling complex human behavior. Although there have been numerous attempts to apply behavioral economics concepts to applied settings, there are a limited number of experiments conducted in educational settings. The purpose of the studies in this paper is a to apply well-grounded scientific findings in behavioral economics to education to advance our understanding of teaching and learning and to develop cost-effective interventions. Study 1 (Kim et al., 2021) was a systematic review and meta-analysis on 24 token economy studies conducted in general and special education classrooms from kindergarten to 5th grade between 2000 and 2019. Eight token economy components and effect sizes were identified for each study and compared across different classroom types. The results showed that the token economy...