Alexander W. Cappelen is a professor at the Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), where his academic positions include Deputy Director of the Centre of Excellence FAIR (Centre for Experimental Research on Fairness, Inequality and Rationality), co-director of the research group The Choice Lab, and Chairman of Centre for Ethics and Economics.
His research interests are behavioral, experimental and public economics, business ethics, social choice theory, political philosophy and distributive justice. Cappelen has published extensively in leading international journals.
Cappelen finished his doctoral dissertation on “Redistribution in a Divided World” at NHH in 2000, and has been Professor since 2006. He is a Distinguished Teacher (Merritert underviser) since 2022.
Contact: Alexander.Cappelen@nhh.no
FAIR NHH: www.nhh.no/en/research-centres/fair/
Department of Economics NHH: https://www.nhh.no/en/employees/faculty/alexander-wright-cappelen/
Books
The Economics of Fairness (edited together with Bertil Tungodden). 2019. Edward Elgar Publishing.
new publications
Experimental evidence on the acceptance of males falling behind, (co-authors: Bertil Tungodden and Ranveig Falch) forthcoming in Journal of European Economic Association.
Acceptance of inequality between children: Large-scale experimental evidence from China and Norway, (co-authors: Bertil Tungodden, Ranveig Falch and Zhongjing Huang) forthcoming in Economic Journal.
Universalism: Global evidence, (co-authors: Bertil Tungodden and Benjamin Enke) forthcoming in American Economic Review.
Fairness and limited information: Are people Bayesian meritocrats?, (co-authors: Thomas de Haan and Bertil Tungodden) forthcoming in Journal of Public Economics.
Cancel the deal? An experimental study on exploitation of irrational customers (co-authors: Bertil Tungodden, Stefan Meissner) forthcoming in the Management Science.
Attitudes to inequality: preferences and beliefs (co-authors: Ingvild Almås, Erik Ø. Sørensen and Bertil Tungodden), in Oxford Open Economics, 2024, i64 - i79.
The development gap in economic rationality of future elites, (co-authors: Bertil Tungodden, Shachar Kariv, and Erik Ø. Sørensen), in Games and Economic Behavior, 142: 866-878, 2023.
Second-best fairness: The trade-off between false positives and false negatives, (co-authors: Bertil Tungodden and Cornelius Cappelen), in American Economic Review, 113 (9): 2458-85, 2023.
The merit primacy effect, (co-authors: Bertil Tungodden, Karl Ove Moene, and Siv-Elisabeth Skjelbred),in Economic Journal, Volume 133, Issue 651, Pages 951–970, April 2023.
Exercise improves academic performance, (co-authors Gary Charness, Mathias Ekström, Uri Gneezy and Bertil Tungodden), forthcoming in Journal of Political Economy.
A meritocratic origin of egalitarian behavior, (co-authors: Johanna Mollerstrom, Bjørn-Atle Reme, and Bertil Tungodden), Economic Journal, Volume 132, Issue 646, Pages 2101–2117, August 2022.
Global evidence on the selfish rich inequality hypothesis, (co-authors: Ingvild Almås, Bertil Tungodden, and Erik Ø. Sørensen), Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences (PNAS), 119 (3), 2022.
Competitiveness, gender and handedness: a large-sample intercultural study, (co-authors: Thomas Buser, Uri Gneezy, Moshe Hoffman, and Bertil Tungodden), Economics and Human Biology, Volume 43, December 2021.
Understanding the resource curse: A large-scale experiment on corruption in Tanzania, (co-authors: Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Donald Mmari, Ingrid Hoem Sjursen, and Bertil Tungodden), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization,183: 129-157, 2021.
Solidarity and fairness in times of crisis, (co-authors Ranveig Falch, Erik Ø. Sørensen and Bertil Tungodden), Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Volume 186, Pages 1-11, June 2021.
Choice and Personal Responsibility: What is a Morally Relevant Choice?, (co-authors Sebastian Fest, Erik Ø. Sørensen, and Bertil Tungodden), Review of Economics and Statistics, 104(5): 1-35, December 2020.
New chapter: Fair and unfair income inequality, (co authors Ranveig Falch, and Bertil Tungodden), Handbook of Labor, Human Resources and Population Economics, 2020.
You’ve got mail: A randomized field experiment on tax evasion, (co-authors: Kristina Bott, Bertil Tungodden, and Erik Ø. Sørensen), Management Science, 66(7): 2801-3294, 2020.
The Effect of Early Childhood Education on Social Preferences, (co-authors John List, Anya Samek, and Bertil Tungodden), Journal of Political Economy, 128(7): 2739-2758, 2020.
Teaching through television: Experimental evidence on entrepreneurship education in Tanzania, (co-authors Kjetil Bjorvatn, Linda Helgesson Sekei, Erik Ø. Sørensen, and Bertil Tungodden), Management Science, 66(6): 2291-2799, June 2020.
Cutthroat capitalism versus cuddly socialism: Are Americans more meritocratic and efficiency-seeking than Scandinavians?, (co-authors Ingvild Almås, and Bertil Tungodden), Journal of Political Economy, 128(5): 1753-1788, 2020.
The Development of Social Comparisons and Sharing Behavior Across 12 Countries, (co-authors Anya Samek, Jason Cowell, Bertil Tungodden, Yawei Cheng, Carlos Contreras-Ibanez, Natalia Gomez-Sicard, Maria Luz Gonzalez-Gadea, David Huepe, Agustin Ibanez, Professor Kang Lee, Susan Malcolm-Smith, Natalia Salas, Bilge Selcuk, Alina Wong, Xinyue Zhou, and Jean Decety), Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 192(104778), April 2020.
Invited resubmissions
Cooperation creates moral obligations, (co-authors: Bertil Tungodden, Varun Gauri) invited resubmission in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.
Fairness and willingness to compete, (co-authors: Thomas Buser and Bertil Tungodden) invited resubmission in Experimental Economics.
Linking Social and Personal Preferences: Theory and Experiment, (co-authors Shachar Kariv, Erik Ø. Sørensen, Bertil Tungodden and Bill Zame) invited resubmission in Journal of Political Economy.
Working papers
Fairness in a Society of Unequal Opportunities, (co-authors:Yiming Liu, Hedda Nielsen, Bertil Tungodden)
Fairness in winner-take-all competitions, (co-authors: Björn Bartling, Mathias Ekström, Erik Ø. Sørensen, Bertil Tungodden)
How are gender norms perceived?, (co-authors: Leonardo Bursztyn, Bertil Tungodden, Alessandra Voena, David Yanagizawa-Drott).
Free to fail? Paternalistic preferences in the United States (co-authors: Björn Bartling, Alexander W. Cappelen, Henning Hermes, Marit Skivenes).
Inequality acceptance in China: fairness views, inequality beliefs, and policy attitudes in a socialist market economy, (co-authors: Ingvild Almås, Caroline Bonn, Bertil Tungodden and Cornelius Cappelen), 2022.
Expectations and social preferences - theory and experimental evidence, (co-authors Matthew Rabin, Erik Ø. Sørensen and Bertil Tungodden).
Cooperation Creates Special Moral Obligations, (co-authors Varun Gauri and Bertil Tungodden), Cesifo Working Papers 7052/2018.
The freedom to choose undermines the willingness to redistribute, (co-authors Sebastian Fest, Erik Ø. Sørensen and Bertil Tungodden), NHH Discussion Paper 27/2014.
Willingness to compete in a gender equal society, (co-authors Ingvild Almås, Kjell G. Salvanes, Erik Ø. Sørensen and Bertil Tungodden), NHH Discussion Paper 24/2012.
Tax policy and fair inequality, (co-author Bertil Tungodden), NHH Discussion Paper 03/2012.
Modeling Individual Choices in Experiments: Random utility versus random behavior, (co-authors Astri Drange Hole, Erik Sørensen and Bertil Tungodden). NHH Discussion Paper 07/2009.
Desert and neutrality, (co-author Bertil Tungodden).
How do social preferences relate to socio-economic history: An experiment on the ILEE-platform, (co-authors Erik Ø. Sørensen, Jean Robert Tyran and Bertil Tungodden).