Peter Wakker
As part of its 50th anniversary, the Journal of Economic Theory presents a special issue that includes the 50 most influential papers the journal has published over the years. One of these selected papers is "An index of loss aversion", written by Peter Wakker (Erasmus School of Economics) together with Veronika Köbberling.
Thomas Buser
Thomas Buser, Tinbergen Institute alumnus and research fellow ranked first in Dutch ‘Economentop 40’ 2019.
Shaul Shalvi
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Consolidator Grant to Shaul Shalvi, Professor of Behavioural Ethics at the Amsterdam School of Economics (UvA) for his research project "Responsible sharing: Paving the path for transparent trust". Project description: The collaborative economy is estimated to add €160-€572 billion to the EU economy. Faced with blurry definitions in this emerging market, regulators use a top-down approach and introduce regulations that often fail to consider users’ behaviour. Although considerable knowledge on top-down regulatory solutions for the collaborative economy is accumulating, little is known about the bottom-up psychological factors driving the collaborative economy users’ behaviour. Online platforms rely and promote trust between users and service providers. For responsible sharing, however, trust is necessary but not sufficient. Only when trust is encouraged transparently can users share responsibly. TRUSTPATH will assess, if: (1) users are aware of, or motivated to learn about, the side effects of trade; (2) platforms’ promotion of trust increases users’ information neglect; and (3) transparent environments reduce information neglect and increase responsible sharing. Building on my expertise on trust and cooperation, and using insights from psychology, management, and economics, I will develop and test a novel psychological theory of how people use the collaborative economy: Transparency Based Trust theory (TBT). TBT’s novel hypothesis suggests trust encouraged without transparency leads users to neglect the negative side effects trade has on others. TRUSTPATH innovates by developing a novel methodology (the collaborative economy game) and using cutting-edge technologies (large-scale experiments). Support for TBT implies a major step forward in the systematic understanding of the collaborative economy in the social sciences, and the psychological mechanisms underlying users’ behaviour on platforms like Airbnb, Uber, and others. TRUSTPATH will contribute to establish a new field of study: the psychology of the collaborative economy; inform policymakers seeking to regulate the collaborative economy; and inform companies seeking to promote responsible sharing among users.
Thomas Buser
Thomas Buser, Associate Professor at the Amsterdam School of Economics (UvA) has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council for his project “Competition, Time Pressure, Public Speaking and Multitasking: The Role of Willingness and Ability to Cope with Pressure in Explaining Individual Differences and Inequality in Career Outcomes”.
Shaul Shalvi
Shaul Shalvi (Amsterdam School of Economics, University of Amsterdam) has received Jane Beattie Scientific Recognition Award. The biennial Jane Beattie Award is awarded by the European Association for Decision Making, in recognition of “innovation in decision research”. Shalvi received the award for his innovative research in ethical decision making.
Chen Li
A VENI grant has been awarded to Chen Li, an Assistant Professor at the Erasmus School of Economics, for the project 'Trapped in Gender Stereotypes?" The project addresses the topic of gender equality: invisible stereotypes keep holding people back. This project uses techniques from behavioral economics to reduce stereotypes. It delivers a new measure of stereotypes and the resulting welfare costs, identifies biases that trap people in stereotypes, and provides new inequality-reducing tools.
Shaul Shalvi
An NWO VIDI grant has been awarded to Shaul Shalvi (Amsterdam School of Economics, UvA), for his project "Sharing responsibly on the on-demand economy".
Jan Stoop
NWO awarded a VIDI grant to Jan Stoop (Erasmus School of Economics) for his project "Measuring poverty with envelopes". This project deepens our knowledge on poverty using novel field experiments.
Chen Li
Assistant Professor Chen Li of Erasmus School of Economics has obtained an EUR Fellowship for her research project "Identifying and Reducing Biases under Social Uncertainty". With the EUR Fellowship Erasmus University Rotterdam is supporting talented researchers at the early stage of their academic career. The fellowship consists of a grant of € 135,000, to carry out research for a maximum of two years.
Arthur Schram, Katharina Brütt
Research Master student Katharina Brütt has been awarded a four-year NWO Research Talent grant to fund a PhD project on "Endogenous Group Formation and Decision-Making". The project will be supervised by research fellows Arthur Schram and Joep Sonnemans, at the Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision making (CREED) at the Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Amsterdam.
Joep Sonnemans, Sander Onderstal
Sander Onderstal and Joep Sonnemans (Amsterdam School of Economics, University of Amsterdam) have been awarded an EU Horizon 2020 grant for their project "Improving Sustainability in Food Processing using Moderate Electric Fields for Process Intensification and Smart Processing." The grant was awarded to a consortium of seven European universities: coordinating institution University College Dublin (Ireland), Sheffield Hallam University (UK), Università degli Studi di Salerno (Italy), Technical University of Valencia (Spain), Lund University (Sweden), TU Berlin (Germany), and the University of Amsterdam. The total amount received for the project is € 1,300,000 euros, with € 250,000 allocated to the University of Amsterdam. The Dutch part of the grant will be covered by NWO's (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) natural sciences domain (ENW).
Shaul Shalvi
The Netherlands Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) has awarded a Sara van Dam grant to Shaul Shalvi (Amsterdam School of Economics, University of Amsterdam) for his research project "Developing empathy to boost honesty: A behavioral ethics approach."
Jan Stoop
Jan Stoop, of the Erasmus School of Economics, has been awarded the prestigious Pierson Medal of the Stichting Mr. N.G. Pierson Fonds. The medal is awarded by the during the KVS, the Royal Dutch association for economists. In addition to the medal Jan Stoop received a cash prize of € 5,000.
Shaul Shalvi
Shaul Shalvi (University of Amsterdam) was elected to the Young Academy of Europe based on his leadership in research and contributions to the field of Behavioural Ethics, strengthening the links between psychological and economic science.
Shaul Shalvi
Shaul Shalvi, Associate Professor at the Amsterdam School of Economics (UvA) received a Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros from the European Research Council (ERC). The Grant was awarded for this project "At the roots of corruption: a behavioral ethics approach". In this project Shaul Shalvi studies negative aspects of human cooperation. For many years, human cooperation has been praised as beneficial in organizational and personal settings. However, while the benefits of cooperation are clear, very little is known about its possible negative aspects. Such negative aspects include the potential emergence of unethical conduct among cooperating partners, or as termed here – corrupt collaboration. Such joint unethical efforts, benefiting (directly or indirectly) one or more of the involved parties, occur in business, sports, and even academia. Corrupt collaboration emerges when one party bends ethical rules (here: lie) to set the stage for another party to further bend ethical rules and get the job done, that is, secure personal profit based on joint unethical acts. We propose that corrupt collaborations most commonly occur when all involved parties gain from the corrupt behavior. The current proposal is aimed at unfolding the roots and nature of corrupt collaborations; their existence, the psychological and biological processes underlying them, and the settings most likely to make corrupt collaboration emerge and spread. Accordingly, the information gathered in the current proposal has the potential to change the commonly held conceptions regarding the unidimensional – positive – nature of cooperation. It will help create a comprehensive understanding of cooperation and, specifically, when it should be encouraged or, alternatively, monitored.
Aurélien Baillon
Aurélien Baillon, Professor of economics of uncertainty at the Erasmus School of Economics, received a Starting Grant of 1.5 million euros from the European Research Council (ERC). Aurélien Baillon received the grant for the project “Bayesian markets for unverifiable truths”. In this project he will develop a new approach to get correct answers to questions that are otherwise unverifiable, e.g. concerning one’s happiness or the estimated likelihood of dramatic fatal events. As such the results of the project have a potential beyond economics, in a broad range of social sciences.
Jan Stoop
Jan Stoop, Assistant Professor at the Erasmus School of Economics, has been awarded a VENI grant for his project "Does the lab speak the truth?"
Aurélien Baillon
NWO awarded a VIDI grant to Aurélien Baillon (Erasmus School of Economics) for his research project "Beyond rational expectations". This project studies whether people have perfect (rational) expectations about their future, as economists usually assume. That will lead to an improved understanding as to why people take out insurances too quickly and save too little for their pensions.