My research focusses on 3 main research areas.
- Behavio(u)ral Economic Theory and its Applications
In this strand of my research I focus on the application of behavio(u)ral economics on other subfields of economics, such as contract theory or bargaining theory. Incorporating behavio(u)ral economics concepts of decision making into "traditional" models like, e.g., Principal-Agent models can give additional insights and may explain behavioral patterns of economic agents observed in empirical or experimental studies. Additionally, I try to set up new behavioral models, e.g., on the behavior of teams.
Current projects in this field are (see "Working Papers" for details):
- Contracts and Bargaining with Inequity Aversion
- Team Behavior in Games: A Behavioral Theory
- Challenging the IIA Axiom - Theory and Experimental Investigation with a Non-Cooperative Approach - "Teamonomics" - the Economics of Teams
Teams are nowadays known to have different behavioral patterns from individuals. Especially lab experiments have shown plentyful insights into how teams and their members act and interact. But what are the drivers behind those behavioral differences? And what makes teams succesful? In my research, I try to shed light on those and more questions, using theoretical, experimental and empirical methods.
Current projects in this field are (see "Working Papers" for details):
- Comparing the Behavior of Teams and Individuals in a Public Goods Game with Ostracism - A Null Result?
- What Drives Differences in Team Performance? Gender vs. Ability
- Team Behavior in Games: A Behavioral Theory - Sociological and Biological Determintants of Human Economic Behavior
In this part of my research I try to elicit what exactly drives differences in the behavior of various groups of human beings. What differences in preferences and resulting economic behavior exist, e.g., between men and women? And are those differences sociologically or biologically driven?
To answer those questions, I use various experimental economics approaches and also try to work with new helpful experimental methods.
Current projects in this field are (see "Working Papers" for details):
- Gender vs. sex: What drives behavior?
- "Field in the Lab" – An Animal Approach to Human Lab Experiments
- Smarter People are More Often Overconfident - Evidence From a Large-Scale Online Experiment
- Are Women Really More Patient Than Men? - New Evidence From a Large Scale Online Experiment