Research

Working papers:

Adversarial economic preferences predict right-wing voting

"Adversarial" preferences – competitiveness, negative reciprocity, distrust, and selfishness – are strong predictors of right-wing and populist political preferences. Their explanatory power is similar to that of a rich set of socioeconomic status indicators – including income, education and occupation – and robust to non-parametrically controlling for them.

The anatomy of competitiveness revise and resubmit at Journal of the Economic Science Association (with Hessel Oosterbeek)
We differentiate between four different motivations for entering competitions – enjoyment of competition, desire to win, competition for personal development, and general challenge seeking. We investigate which of these dimensions are picked up by traditional measures of competitiveness; how they predict career outcomes; how they predict wellbeing; and how they relate to other personality traits, skills, and preferences.

Occupational sorting on genes (with Rafael Ahlskog, Magnus Johannesson and Sven Oskarsson)
Linking genetic data to government registry data, we explore how people sort into different occupations and study majors based on their genetic tendencies towards a range of personality traits and cognitive skills. 

The origins of gender differences in competitiveness and earnings expectations: Causal evidence from a mentoring intervention (with Teodora Boneva, Armin Falk and Fabian Kosse)
We present evidence on the role of the social environment for the development of gender differences in competitiveness and earnings expectations. First, we show that these gender gaps vary with socioeconomic background. Second, we show that a randomised intervention that exposes low-SES children to predominantly female role models narrows the gender gaps in both competitiveness and earnings expectations. 

Fairness and Willingness to Compete revise and resubmit at Experimental Economics (with Alexander Cappelen and Bertil Tungodden)
We examine the role of fairness in determining willingness to compete by systematically varying the fairness of the competition setting. Chance of winning trumps concerns for fairness for most people. A majority of participants are willing to impose competition on opponents who have been exogenously handicapped or are known to be weaker.

Publications:

The causal effect of genetic variants linked to cognitive and non-cognitive skills on education and labor market outcomes accepted at Labour Economics (with Rafael Ahlskog, Magnus Johannesson, Philipp Koellinger and Sven Oskarsson)
We estimate the effect of genetic variants that are associated with differences in cognitive and non-cognitive skills on labor market and education outcomes by linking genetic data from individuals in the Swedish Twin Registry to government registry data.

Can competitiveness predict education and labor market outcomes? Evidence from incentivized choice and survey measures accepted at Review of Economics and Statistics (with Muriel Niederle and Hessel Oosterbeek) Online appendix
We show that an incentivized measure of competitiveness predicts education and labor market outcomes in a representative sample. We also define a new survey measure for competitiveness and show that it predicts the same outcomes, in the same sample, and with similar predictive power. Competitiveness is a strong predictor of career outcomes compared to risk preferences, confidence and the big five personality traits.

Time Pressure Preferences accepted at Management Science (with Roel van Veldhuizen and Yang Zhong)
We design an incentivized experiment and survey questions to elicit preferences for working under time pressure. Participants in the experiment are averse to working under time pressure on aggregate. Individual differences in time pressure preferences correlate with future career plans in a student survey.

Gender and Willingness to Compete for High Stakes Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 206. (2023). 350-370. (with Dennie van Dolder and Martijn van den Assem) 
We examine gender differences in competitiveness under very high stakes using game show data. Women avoid competing against men, and men exploit this in strategic interactions. Press: Süddeutsche Zeitung, Marginal Revolution

Public Speaking Aversion Management Science. 69.5 (2023). 2746-2760. (with Huaiping Yuan) Online appendix
We establish public speaking aversion as an economically relevant preference. We show that a majority of people are willing to forgo substantial amounts of money to avoid speaking in public and that the degree to which someone is averse to public speaking predicts their career plans. Press: Financieel Dagblad

Willingness to compete, gender and career choices along the whole ability distribution  Experimental Economics 25. (2022) 1299–1326. (with Noemi Peter and Stefan Wolter)
Is the gender gap in willingness to compete the same for high-ability and low-ability students? How does willingness to compete predict career choices at different ability levels? Press: Tages-Anzeiger, Berner Zeitung, Der Bund, WOZ

Competitiveness, gender and handedness Economics & Human Biology 43. (2021). 101037. (with Alexander Cappelen, Uri Gneezy, Moshe Hoffman and Bertil Tungodden)
We conduct a large-scale intercultural experiment to elicit competitiveness and ask whether individual and gender differences in competitiveness are partially determined by nature, using handedness as a proxy for neurological differences.

Gender Differences in Willingness to Compete: The Role of Public Observability Journal of Economic Psychology 83. (2021). 102366. (with Eva Ranehill and Roel van Veldhuizen)
Does public observability of the choice to enter a competition exacerbate the gender difference in willingness to compete?

Overconfidence and Gender Gaps in Redistributive Preferences: Cross-Country Experimental Evidence Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 178. (2020). 267-286. (with Gianluca Grimalda, Louis Putterman and Joël van der Weele)
Can gender differences in overconfidence and risk preferences explain why women are more in favour of redistributive policies than men? Press: ESB, Greenpeace Magazin, Psychology Today

Do women give up competing more easily? Evidence from the lab and the Dutch Math Olympiad American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 11(3). (2019). 225-252. (with Huaiping Yuan) Online appendix
Does the willingness to compete of men and women react differently to winning and losing? Do gender differences in willingness to compete shrink or increase with experience? Press: Marginal Revolution, NRC, Die Presse

Sexual orientation, competitiveness and income Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 151. (2018). 191-198. (with Lydia Geijtenbeek and Erik Plug)
Can differences in willingness to compete explain why gays earn less than straight men and lesbians earn more than straight women? Press: The Economist, Marginal Revolution, IZA Newsroom

Responsiveness to feedback as a personal trait Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 56(2). (2018). 165–192. (with Leonie Gerhards and Joël van der Weele)
Is responsiveness to feedback a stable trait that can be measured at the individual level? Can it predict the choice of entering a competition?

Gender, competitiveness and study choices in high school: evidence from Switzerland American Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings 107(5). (2017). 125-130. (with Noemi Peter and Stefan Wolter)
Can gender differences in competitiveness explain gender differences in the choice of academic field? 

The impact of stress on tournament entry Experimental Economics 20(2). (2017). 506–530. (with Anna Dreber and Johanna Möllerström)
Do stress reactions to competing predict willingness to compete in a tournament? Is there a causal effect of stress on willingness to compete? 

The impact of positive and negative income changes on the height and weight of young children The World Bank Economic Review 31(3). (2017). 786–808. (with Hessel Oosterbeek, Erik Plug, Juan Ponce and José Rosero).
Does gaining or losing a government cash transfer affect the health of young children in poor families?

The impact of losing in a competition on the willingness to seek further challenges Management Science 62(12). (2016). 3439-3449.
Do people become more or less challenge seeking after losing in a competition?

The Flipside of Comparative Payment Schemes Management Science 62(9). (2016). 2626-2638. (with Anna Dreber).
Do competitive payment schemes have a negative spillover effect on people's willingness to cooperate?

The effect of income on religiousness American Economic Journal: Applied Economics 7(3). (2015). 178-95.
Do exogenous shocks to household income affect religious denomination and church attendance? Press: Economista X

Gender, Competitiveness and Career Choices Quarterly Journal of Economics 129(3). (2014). 1409-1447. (with Muriel Niederle and Hessel Oosterbeek). Online appendix.
Can gender differences in competitiveness explain gender differences in the choice of academic field? Press: Science, Washington Post, Les Affaires, Technology Org, Chicago Booth Review, Harvard Business Review

Digit ratios, the menstrual cycle and social preferences Games and Economic Behavior 76(2). (2012). 457-470.
Are choices in social preference games influenced by current and prenatal differences in the exposure to sex hormones?

Multitasking Experimental Economics 15(4). (2012). 641-655. (with Noemi Peter) Winner of editors’ award for best paper in Experimental Economics in 2012
Is switching between tasks good or bad for productivity? Do people optimally choose their degree of task switching? Press: Huffington Post, ESB, Chronicle of Higher Education, FAZ, Clear Thinking, The Straight Dope

The impact of the menstrual cycle and hormonal contraceptives on competitiveness Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 83(1). (2012). 1-10.
Does willingness to compete against others vary over the menstrual cycle and with the intake of hormonal contraceptives? Press: Spiegel, Science Palooza, Sargasso, Stats and Curiosities: From Harvard Business Review, Vrij Nederland