A CARIBBEAN Centre for Social and Behavioural Economics, the first of its kind in this English-speaking region, is to be established at the University of Guyana (UG).

Dr. Thomas B. Singh, a lecturer at UG, said the proposed unit will be conducting economics experiments, with the aim of using the results to better understand society’s behaviour patterns.
He pointed out that the results are of particular relevance to the policy-making process since related decisions are grounded on assumptions of human conduct.
“In economics, we are openly concerned about policy and policy that works and, if we get even the behavioural assumptions wrong, policy will not be properly designed (and) we’ll end up with policies that don’t work, that don’t achieve what we want them to achieve,” he explained, during an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle yesterday.
Singh indicated that the UG facility would be collaborating with the University of Kent in the United Kingdom (UK), through Dr. Edward Cartwright, a senior lecturer at the School of Economics there.
In 2012, Singh was awarded a Commonwealth Academic Fellowship to work with Cartwright on experimental economics techniques and methods.
As it relates to funding for the UG venture, Singh said that funds will be sought under the UG Science and Technology Support Project, financed by the World Bank to deliver support to Guyana’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS).

Climate change
He pointed out that climate change is a global public policy issue.
“Therefore, many of the experiments we (economists) conduct have immediate relevance (to climate change policy),” Singh reasoned.
For example, he said economics experiments on voluntary contributions are important since the world’s nations must contribute voluntarily towards preventing climate change.
Another potential source of financing, Singh indicated, includes the Leverhulme Trust, one of the UK’s largest providers for research.
He said the money would go, largely, towards paying the subjects of these experiments which are “better when incentivised.”
“That (paying subjects) could cost between two hundred to three hundred thousand (Guyana) dollars per experiment,” he advised.
In addition, Singh said some funds will be used to employ interns for the initiative as well as finance workshops facilitated by experts in the field.
As for hardware, he said, for the time being, the facility would “piggyback” on infrastructure which already exists in the computer laboratories of UG’s Centre for Information Technology.

Two measures
Meanwhile, the open source software, Z-Tree will be deployed and those two measures appear to be part of an effort to keep the establishment costs at a minimum.
Singh disclosed that other faculty members involved in the project include Mr. Troy Thomas, who is, currently, a Ph.D candidate at the University of Ghent and Ms. Dianna Da Silva, a researcher at UG’s Institute of Development Studies.
Singh also mentioned the contributions of Ms. Shivana Persaud and Mr. Clevroy Thomas, both of whom have just completed their degrees in economics and are volunteering their time and effort.
Pressed on the timeline for establishing the centre, Singh said he is waiting on the UG Administration to initiate discussions on the formal institutionalisation.