Money Illusion: Are Economists Different?

We carried out a survey among a large group of undergraduate students of different disciplines and different years to test whether the study of economics or scientific majors influences the degree by which people are affected by money illusion. We find significant differences between first-year students, suggesting the presence of a selection bias towards money illusion in humanities students and away from it in economics and science students. In addiction, comparing economics students of different years, we do not find evidence of a learning effect. The authors would like to thank Federica Barzi and Dolores Rizzotto for capable research assistance. Financial support from MIUR (Diego Lubian) is gratefully acknowledged