ERC Consolidator Grant awarded to fellow Shaul Shalvi
The European Research Council (ERC) has awarded a Consolidator Grant to fellow Shaul Shalvi (University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School of Economics, Microeconomics section) for his research project ‘Responsible sharing: Paving the path for transparent trust’. The prestigious grant is awarded to individual researchers and amount to around 2 million euros per project.
Responsible sharing: Paving the path for transparent trust
Online platforms in our ‘sharing economy’ encourage people to ‘connect with others’ as Airbnb hosts, 'earn money when it suits them' as an Uber driver, and 'get paid for riding around your city' as a Deliveroo riders.
The new collaborative economy offers many benefits to citizens, such as easy access to services and finding flexible employment. At the same time, it leads to ethical risks and challenges, by increasing ambiguity about whether one is an employee or self-employed, or whether a service is provided by a professional or a non-professional?
Although knowledge about the collaborative economy is accumulating, little is still known about the psychological factors driving users’ behaviour. In particular, little knowledge exists on whether people consider those that are indirectly affected by their use, such as the neighbours of an apartment excessively rented out on platforms like Airbnb. Shalvi wants to gain a better understanding of how people use sharing platforms. Specifically, he is interested in understanding what makes users consider the consequences of sharing, and whether transparent sharing platforms promote responsible sharing.
Shalvi is an associate professor at CREED (the Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision Making) and at the Psychology Department at the University of Amsterdam. His main research interests are in experimental economics, moral psychology, cooperation, and in particular behavioral ethics. In his current research, he tries to identify the mechanisms at the roots of corruption. Find more about Shalvi on his personal website.