Understanding the choices and mechanisms behind economic decision-making

Neoclassical economic models make too strict assumptions that deviate from reality. In my research I combine the knowledge from cognitive science and behavioural economics to find better description of real life behaviour, more precise predictions of such, followed by more adequate policy implications.

I am a Ph.D. candidate in Economics, focusing on Behavioural and Experimental Economics. My research interests, can be divided into two main strands:

  • What factors affect decisions with uncertain outcomes?
  • How is the efficiency of different mechanisms affected by preferences for selfish and non-selfish outcomes?

Decision-making under uncertainty in various contexts

Making decisions with uncertain consequences is pervasive in everyday life. It spans from simple choices whether to take umbrella when going out, through the choice of university or retirement savings to complex medical decisions that sometimes involve high risks. The riskiness of the choice has been shown to depend on the context of the decision. In my research, I focus on different aspects that can affect choices under risk and uncertainty. Some of the factors I investigate include:

  • Decisions for oneself versus decisions for other individuals
  • How intuition and deliberation affect risky choices
  • How fatigue influences choices to take risks among surgeons
  • What role do emotions play in risky decision-making
  • How risky preferences shape financial decisions of individuals.

Efficiency and preferences

Very important part of economics is to investigate how to achieve efficiency on the markets and in the economy. In my research, I put focus on two particular situations, in which efficiency can be disrupted due to individuals’ behaviour and preferences.

How procedural fairness concerns affect efficiency of coordination mechanisms?

Informal rules governing the exploitation of common pool resources or climate negotiations can be modelled as a game with multiple equilibria that require coordination for successful provision of the good in question (sustaining common resource or preventing climate catastrophe). Sometimes fair rules are not possible to implement. We investigate whether the preferences for fairness undermine the efficiency of coordination mechanisms that put one party at a disadvantage. (Joint project with Verena Kurz, university of Gothenburg, Sweden and Andreas Orland, University of Potsdam, Germany).

How incentives to deceive affect behaviour in a competitive environment and efficiency of winner-takes-all competitions?

Individuals might engage in dishonest behaviour in order to gain competitive advantage over others, for example they fake university degree diplomas in their job applications or use doping in sports.  We investigate how willingness to compete and the efficiency of competitive incentive scheme are affected by a possibility to misreport one’s own performance in a competition between individuals with similar skills. (Joint project with Peter Martinsson and Camilla Josephson, Linköping University).

Teaching

I teach following courses at the undergraduate level:

  • Behavioural Economics
  • Game Theory
  • Microeconomics

Furthermore, I also participate in the supervision of Master’s Theses.

Research group

Publications

2023

2021

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