I am an Associate Professor of Practice in Behavioral & Decision Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm also a fellow in both the Behavioral and Decision Sciences Program and the Center for Social Norms and Behavioral Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania, a collaborator at the Behavior Change for Good Initiative (BCFG) at Wharton & a Network Fellow at CESifo. From 2022 - 2023, I was also part of the former White House Behavioral Science Team (now: OES) and worked on high-impact RCTs related to the opioid epidemic.

I work primarily in the field of experimental behavioral economics, particularly focusing on behavioral ethics and behavior change. My recent research explores how social norms and nudges can influence our self-serving beliefs and actions. I also examine how these factors can promote pro-social and anti-social behavior in different contexts, both individually and collectively, and how societal polarization is exacerbated. 

Another area that I'm actively exploring relates to the interplay between corruption, terrorism, and migration. I'm dedicated to better understanding the reasons people choose or are forced to migrate, and the resulting effects of these movements. My interest in these subjects is not purely academic; it is also deeply personal. Having emigrated from Moldova as a refugee following the collapse of the Soviet Union, this firsthand experience has created a long-lasting imprint. 

My Google Scholar page provides a good overview.

February 2024:

We have a new working paper out on 'Measuring Norm Pluralism and Perceived Polarization in U.S. Politics'
(with F. Panizza, E. Kimbrough & A. Vostroknutov). In there, we first propose a new social norm measurement approach that captures the pluralism of societies and then validate the elicitation method in the context of U.S. politics. Our study uncovers a wide range of views on social norms between and within political groups. Partisans understand their group’s norms and hold personal beliefs that align with them. They can also recognize the diversity and polarization in U.S. public opinion by identifying norms specific to political parties and acknowledge the variety of opinions within their own parties, which may indicate internal divisions. The working paper can be downloaded: here.

February 2024:

Our paper 'Paying Them to Hate US: Effect of U.S. Military Aid on Anti-American Terrorism, 1968-2018', joint with T. Krieger (Freiburg) & D. Meierrieks (WZB) has now been accepted for publication in the Economic Journal. For a sample of 174 countries between 1968 and 2018, we find that U.S. military aid to other countries, particularly in forms like military financing and education, is linked to an increased risk of anti-American terrorism in those countries. This is because the aid often leads to reduced military effectiveness, more corruption, and policies that exclude certain groups, thereby fueling local grievances and resentment toward the United States. Until the paper is officially published, the WP can be downloaded here: link.

January 2024:

We published a new working paper entitled 'The Price of Identity: Material Interest, Reaction to Bias, and Ingroup Solidarity', joint with L. Reinhardt (Cologne/Oxford) & N. Sambanis (Yale). We examined experimentally how racial biases influence reactions to inequality among Black and White Americans, addressing the interplay of material interests and affective ties in racial conflict and discrimination. We find that Black Americans were more likely than White Americans to address inequalities affecting their group. This is especially the case when these inequalities were intentionally created by others, indicating a heightened sensitivity to the source of discrimination. The paper can be downloaded here: link.

Strategic Behavior with Tight, Loose & Polarized Norms
Accepted at: Management Science, 2023
Short Description: This study explores how individuals respond to different distributions of descriptive norms—tight, loose, and polarized—in strategic contexts. It empirically demonstrates that the variance and shape of behavioral norms significantly impact decision-making, with polarized environments prompting extreme actions, and personal traits and values becoming more influential in loose and polarized settings.

Link to Paper ‖ Ungated Version ‖ BibTeX Citation

A Synthesis of Evidence for Policy from Behavioural Science During COVID-19
Nature, 2023
Short Description: Behavioral science played a pivotal role in shaping public health responses during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to an influx of studies. This review systematically assessed 19 major policy recommendations, finding that at least 16 were supported by evidence. Emphasis was placed on the importance of evidence-backed interventions, especially in areas like combating misinformation and utilizing effective messaging strategies.

Link to Paper ‖ Ungated Version ‖ BibTeX Citation

Competition & Moral Behavior: Meta-Analysis of 45 Crowd-Sourced Experimental Designs
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 2023
Short Description: Through collaboration with 45 research teams, the study reveals a minor adverse effect of competition on moral behavior but emphasizes substantial "design heterogeneity," indicating that conclusions drawn from a single experimental design may be limited in their applicability. 

Link to Paper ‖ Ungated Version ‖ BibTeX Citation

Nudging Enforcers: How Norm Perceptions and Motives for Lying Shape Sanctions
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS): Nexus, 2023
Short Description: We show that enforcement and perception of norms, particularly in instances of dishonesty, are both subject to change based on the severity and consequences of the violation, and can be modified successfully using established norm-nudging interventions following Bicchieri & Dimant (2019). 

Link to Paper ‖  Ungated Version ‖ BibTeX Citation

Hate Trumps Love: The Impact of Political Polarization on Social Preferences
Management Science, 2023
Short Description: This paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the impact of political polarization on social preferences, suggesting that negative expectations about an opposing group's cooperativeness drive intergroup conflict and that popular behavioral interventions -- such as norm-nudges and defaults --
do not significantly reduce the polarization gap. 

Link to Paper ‖ Ungated Version ‖ BibTeX Citation

It's Not A Lie if You Believe the Norm Does Not Apply: Conditional Norm-Following and Belief Distortion
Games & Economic Behavior, 2023
Short Description: Through theory and experiments, this paper explores the strategic distortion of beliefs about honesty norms, showing that individuals tend to manipulate their views of what others do and approve of to justify self-serving behavior. 

Link to Paper ‖ Ungated Version ‖ BibTeX Citation

Social Proximity and the Erosion of Norm Compliance
Games and Economic Behavior, 2022
Short Description: In a series of studies that capture a dynamic but non-strategic experimental setting, we show how compliance with norms of pro-social behavior is influenced by peers’ norm compliance. We show that norm compliance can erode quickly but that social proximity among peers can mute this deterioration.

Link to Paper ‖ Ungated Version ‖ BibTeX Citation