briq Newsroom

behavior

Armin Falk receives Felix Büchel Award 2018

At the 13th International SOEP User Conference, the seventh Felix Büchel Award was presented to Armin Falk. After previous awards went to economists, a psychologist, a political scientist, and a sociologist, this is the first time that an economist working in the field of experimental economics receives the prize.

Armin Falk (left) and Constantin Terton

The award includes a 1,000 € cash prize and an invitation to deliver the keynote at the SOEP conference, which Armin Falk gave on “Global Evidence on Economic Preferences”. The prize certificate was conferred by Constantin Terton of IHK Berlin, who represented the award sponsor, the Society of Friends of the DIW Berlin (VdF).

Excerpt from the prize statement:

Armin Falk’s research deals with the psychological foundations of economic behavior. He has shown, for instance, that attempting to monitor and control employees may be less effective than trusting them. He has proven that alongside self-interest, social comparisons are an important aspect of human behavior, and that people reward fairness. In past award presentations, it has been noted that Armin Falk’s findings have significant implications for basic economic research as well as important practical applications. In other words: Armin Falk’s work represents knowledge transfer at its best. His findings aim at improving the explanatory power of economic models and have provided the basis for empirically well-founded economic policy.

In a number of field and laboratory experiments, Armin Falk has tested what motivations drive people’s behavior in different economic situations. In his work, he is not afraid to combine methodologies from life sciences with data from surveys or experiments.

[more on the DIW homepage]

Michal Bauer on nasty behavior in groups

Economic theories often focus on the decisions of individuals, despite the fact that many important commercial, political and social decisions are made by groups of people. How do individuals and groups differ in their decision-making processes and what are the wider consequences of this group interaction?

Michal Bauer (CERGE-EI) tackles this issue through his research in the fields of development microeconomics, experimental economics and behavioral economics. His recent work has focused on the causes and consequences of group conflict, discrimination and the formation of preferences. In July he presented two lectures at briq in which he discussed measuring attention in the field to better understand discrimination and poverty, and the sources of “nasty behavior” in groups.

The presentation covered a recent field experiment conducted in Uganda and Slovakia in order to test selfish and anti-social behavior of individuals and groups. Consistent with previous research, it was found that groups are much less likely to display cooperative behavior than individuals. The study also revealed that groups are more likely to also act anti-socially, by punishing outsiders even when it is costly to themselves. The group context also made people much more aggressively competitive.

The greater nastiness of groups arises almost exclusively due to the psychological effect of being a part of a group on individual preferences, rather than due to deliberation and joint decision-making among group members. Strikingly similar patterns on both continents suggest that the elevation of the dark side of human social motivations is a deeply rooted behavioral response when individuals are banded in a group. The findings have implications for economic theory and can help explain the prevalence of self-destructive group conflicts.