Behavioral Economics and Organization Research Group (BEORG)

Mission Statement:  As a center of excellence for research and teaching in behavioral fields of economics, industrial organization, and management science, BEORG strives to:

• Identify behavioral or social barriers that can be leveraged to improve organizations’ effectiveness

• Provide insights to augment individual decision-making 

• Design studies and provide analytics that rigorously test whether an intervention impacts a targeted outcome 

• Expand the academic knowledge base and support the development of emerging scholars

Keywords: Behavioral economics, analytics, decision-making, industrial organization, management science, research hub 

Our team of experienced, like-minded academics provides the following key capabilities:

• Expertise in behavioral economics incorporating rigorous research design and evaluation relevant to individual, managerial, and financial decision-making. 

• Ability to determine and communicate how and why an intervention works.

• Scholarly advancement of the fields of specialization through research, presentations, workshops, and coordination with partners. 

• Consultation on primary data collection methods, survey instruments, inquiries in controlled settings, and human/organizational analytics for business decision-making.

• Collaboration with private and public agencies to improve efficiency and welfare.

Provided resources:

• Doctoral-level leadership on collaborations, research projects, and student support

• Seminars/workshops/conferences 

• Website/blog/social media presence – mini-blog

• Public resources hub: MTurk designs, instrument templates, Python code

• Special editorial support for manuscripts in behavioral economics

Research Affiliates:

• J. Jobu Babin, Ph.D. – Experimental Economics, Behavioral Game Theory, Behavior Analytics, NLP (University of Northern Iowa Analytics)

• Haritima Chauhan, Ph.D. –  Behavioral Finance, Experimental Economics, Data Analytics, and Modeling (Western Illinois University)

• J. Braxton Gately, Ph.D. –  Behavioral Economics, Experimental Economics, Labor, Development   (Pittsburg State University)

• Manda Tiwari, Ph.D. –  Development, Health, and Education Economics (Troy University)

• Anna Kils, Ph.D. -- Environmental Economics, Behavioral Economics, Experimental Economics (Northern Illinois University)

External Advisory Board: working

Corporate Partners and Donors:

• Cecil P. McDonough Foundation

• The Nancy Morris Trust

Recent Publications: 

• Babin, JJ, Chauhan, H. "Revisiting Erat and Gneezy’s White Lies Paradigm" (2024, forthcoming, Journal of Economic Psychology).

• Babin, JJ, Chauhan, HS, and Kistler, SL (2024). "When Pretty Hurts: Beauty Premia and Penalties in eSports Contracts" Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (forthcoming).

• Gately, JB (2024). “At Least I Tried: Partial Willful Ignorance, Information Acquisition, and Social Preferences.” (Forthcoming, Review of Behavioral Economics).

• Tiwari, M. (2023). Financial incentives and delivery care: Evidence from the Safe Delivery Incentive Program in Nepal. Health Economics, 32(10), 2372-2389.

• Babin, JJ, and Hussey, AJ (2023). "Gender Penalties and Solidarity -- Teaching Evaluation Differentials in and out of STEM." Economics Letters. Vol. 226, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2023.111083.

• Babin, JJ, Chauhan, HS (2023). "Show No Quarter: Combating Plausible Lies with Ex Ante Honesty Oaths" Journal of the Economic Science Association. 9, pp. 66-76.

• Babin, JJ, Chauhan, HS (2023). "Initiating Free-flow Communication in Trust Games." Frontiers in Behavioral Economics. Vol. 2.

• Babin, JJ, Chauhan, HS, and Liu, F. (2022). "You Can’t Hide Your Lying Eyes: Honesty Oaths and Misrepresentation." Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics. Vol. 98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2022.101880

• Babin, JJ, Foray, MP, and Hussey, AJ (2022). "Gender-based Disparities in Loneliness under Shelter in Place Orders." Applied Economics Letters. Vol. 29(12).

• Babin, JJ, Foray, MP, and Hussey, AJ (2021). "Stay at Home Orders, Loneliness, and Collaborative Behavior." Economics and Human Biology, Vol. 43(1).

• Guarin, G and Babin JJ. (2021). "Collaboration and Gender Focality in Stag Hunt Bargaining" Games, Vol. 12(2), 39. 

Recent Activities: 

• Participants in the UChicago School in Experimental Economics, 2024

• Organized sessions at Midwest Economic Association meetings 2024 

• Pioneering a small school research subject pool collective, 2023 - ongoing

Working Papers:

• "AI Chatbot or Humanaut? How the Source of Advice Impacts Behavior in One-shot Social Dilemmas"  

• "Text Analysis of Subjects' Perceptions of the Trust Game"

• "Bravado and Beguile: When the Beautiful Bet Boldly" (attractiveness and risk preferences)

• "Sibling Kinship and Social Dilemmas" 

• "Lying, Norms, and Machiavellianism" 

Behavioral and Experimental Predoctoral Research Assistantship Recipients:

• 2024: Gabriela Galindo-Rubio

• 2022: Steven Kistler

• 2021: Rabab Batool

• 2020: Marine Foray

• 2019: Emmanuel Sanchez-Tovar