Research

Publications

The Lure of Authority: Motivation and Incentive Effects of Power (with Ernst Fehr and Tom Wilkening), American Economic Review, June 2013, vol. 103(4), pp. 1325-59  (Press Coverage: Handelsblatt)

How do judgmental overconfidence and overoptimism shape innovative activity? (with Daniel Schunk and Christian Zehnder), Games and Economic Behavior, January 2014, vol. 83, pp. 1-23

Seeking the Roots of Entrepreneurship: Insights from Behavioral Economics (with Thomas Åstebro, Ramana Nanda and Roberto Weber), Journal of Economic Perspectives, Summer 2014, vol. 28(3), pp. 49-70 

The Intrinsic Value of Decision Rights (with Björn Bartling and Ernst Fehr), Econometrica, November 2014, vol. 82(6), pp. 2005-2039.

A Productive Clash of Cultures: Injecting Economics into Leadership Research (with Jean-Philippe Bonardi and Christian Zehnder), The Leadership Quarterly, February 2017, Vol. 28(1),  pp. 65–85.

What Makes a Price Fair?  An Experimental Study of Transaction Experience and Endogenous Fairness Views (with Dmitry Taubinsky), Journal of the European Economic Association, April 2018, Vol. 16(2), pp. 316-352.

The Causal Effects of Competition on Innovation: Experimental Evidence (with Philippe Aghion, Stefan Bechtold and Lea Cassar), Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, May 2018, Vol. 34(2), pp. 162-195. 

Cooperation and Mistrust in Relational Contracts (with Armin Schmutzler and André Volk), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, October 2019, Vol. 166, pp. 366-380.

Do Preferences and Biases predict Life Outcomes? Evidence from Education and Labor Market Entry Decisions (with Uschi Backes-Gellner, Michael Kosfeld and Yvonne Oswald),  European Economic Review, May 2021, Vol. 134, 103709,

Time Preferences across Language Groups: Evidence on Intertemporal Choices from the Swiss Language Border (with  Martin Huber, Tjasa Maillard-Bjedov and Svitlana Tyahlo), The Economic Journal, October 2021, Vol. 131(639), pp.2920-2954

Building an Equilibrium? Rules Versus Principles in Relational Contracts (with Bob Gibbons, Manuel Grieder and Christian Zehnder), Organization Science, 2023, Vol. 34(6) pp.2231-2249.

Adverse Effects of Control? Evidence from a Field Experiment (with Christian Zihlmann), Experimental Economics, 2024, Vol. 27(2), pp. 469-488.

Control Aversion in Hierarchies (with Alessandro de Chiara, Florian Engl and Ester Manna), Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1093/jleo/ewaf013

 Hindsight Bias and Trust in Government (with Deborah Kistler, Christian Zehnder and Christian Zihlmann), Review of Economics and Statistics, forthcoming.

Working Papers:

Intrinsic Preferences for Choice Autonomy (with Jana Freundt and Leander Kopp), revise and resubmit, Journal of Public Economics, CESifo Working Paper No. 10342.

Perceived Legitimacy and Motivation Effects of Authority (with Christian Zihlmann), revise and resubmit, Games and Economic Behavior, CESifo Working Paper No. 10946.

From Partisanship to Preference: How Identity Shapes Dependence Aversion (with Jana Freundt), CESifo Working Paper No. 11304.

Who wants Power? Measuring Intrinsic Preferences for Power and their Behavioral Signature (with Francisco Gomez Martinez), CESifo Working Paper No. 12241

A Cross-Country Study of Preferences for Choice Autonomy (with Jana Freundt), CESifo Working Paper No. 12238.