News
Christian Seel receives grant from NWO Social Sciences and Humanities domain
Congratulations to Christian Seel who has been awarded a grant from the SSH Open Competition M round 2022 for his project 'Machine Learning and Market Outcomes':
Computerised decisions play a large and increasing role in modern society. For instance, dating apps suggest potential partners and firms hire workers and set sales prices based on computer recommendations. This research project studies risks and benefits of replacing human decisions by computers in different markets. For example, firms might coordinate on higher gas or oil prices based on computer recommendations, leading to increased poverty levels in the population. The researchers develop methods to detect such problems from a given dataset.
Andrew Mackenzie and Elias Tsakas join Arno Riedl on Theory and Decision Editorial Board
Andrew Mackenzie (MPE) and Elias Tsakas (MPE) have joined Arno Riedl (MPE) on the Editorial Board of Theory and Decision. The journal is devoted to all aspects of decision-making, exploring research in psychology, management science, economics, the theory of games, statistics, operations research, artificial intelligence, cognitive science, and analytical philosophy.
Arno Riedl receives NWO's Open Competition SSH grant. A first at SBE!
Arno Riedl's project titled "How background uncertainty affects prosocial behavioural" has been awarded a NWO's Open Competition SSH grant ( a special grant for Curiosity-driven research).
The project investigates at the behavioural and brain level how motivated one is to voluntarily follow a behavioural rule that is personally costly. Understanding the effect is important because erosion of either social preferences or social norm compliance can have negative societal effects through decreased solidarity among citizens.
Hannes Rusch awarded European Research Council (ERC) grant
Dr Hannes Rusch, assistant professor of Microeconomics and Public Economics (MPE), is one of the 397 early-career researchers who was awarded an ERC grant.
"I am very excited to be given this unique opportunity to focus on pursuing a line of research for five years and with the help of a dedicated research team"
Hannes' research, "Determinants & Dynamics of Collaborative Exploitation", will advance in uncharted territory, breaking ground for research in several disciplines and multiple levels of analysis. You can expect a more in-depth look at his research in the nearby future. In the meantime, read the ERC article.
Article of Arno Riedl featured by American Economic Association
An article of Arno Riedl (MPE), with co-authors Florian Engl (University of Regensburg) and Roberto Weber (University of Zurich), published in the November 2021 issue of the American Economic Journal: Microeconomics has been featured by the American Economic Association: https://www.aeaweb.org/research/spillover-institutions-cooperation-preferences-beliefs.
In the article, Riedl and co-authors show that institutions have spillover effects to domains where they do not directly apply. Specifically, the authors’ work illustrates the power of institutions to strengthen prosocial behavior more widely than previously shown. Read the article: https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/mic.20180336
Cognitive Performance and Remote Work
MPE researcher Christian Seel, together with his colleagues Steffen Künn (MILE) and Dainis Zegners from Erasmus University, investigated the impact of remote work on people’s cognitive performance using data on professional chess players. The article is now published in the Economic Journal. Please read more about their study here.