Short Biography
Christian Zehnder is Professor of Organizational Decision Making and Vice-Dean for Faculty at HEC Lausanne. His research is interdisciplinary in that it combines insights from Economics, Psychology and Management and builds on various methodological approaches including laboratory experiments, field experiments and game theoretic models. Christian Zehnder is interested in understanding the behavioral drivers of decision making in organizations. His recent work focuses on conflict management, communication culture, employee motivation, and charismatic leadership.
Download the complete CV here.
Go to my Webpage at the University of Lausanne.
See my Google Scholar Citations.
Journal Publications
MacLeod W. B.; Valle Lara V. and Zehnder C. (in Press). Worker Empowerment and Subjective Evaluation: On Building an Effective Conflict Culture. Management Science.
DOI: not available yet (see here: download paper or see here for a free version)
Chassang S. and Zehnder. C. (in Press). Secure Survey Design in Organizations: Theory and Evidence. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics.
DOI: not available yet (see here: download paper )
Brown M.; Schmitz J. and Zehnder C. (2024). Social Norms and Strategic Default. Journal of Money Credit and Banking.
DOI: 10.1111/jmcb.13165
Herz H.; Kistler D.; Zihlmann C. and Zehnder C. (2024). Hindsight Bias and Trust in Government: Evidence from the United States. Review of Economics and Statistics, 2024(2), 1-30.
DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01421
Brown M.; Schmitz J. and Zehnder C. (2024). Communication and hidden action: A credit market experiment. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 218, 423-455.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jebo.2023.12.019
Gibbons R.; Grieder M.; Herz H. and Zehnder C. (2023). Building an Equilibrium: Rules versus Principles in Relational Contracts. Organization Science, 34, 6, 1997-2525.
Légeret M. and Zehnder C. (2022). Self-regulation after temptation? Economic Letters, 214, 110436.
DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2022.110436
Antonakis J.; d'Adda G.; Weber R. and Zehnder C. (2022). Just Words? Just Speeches? - On the Economic Value of Charismatic Leadership. Management Science, 68, 9, 6355-7064.
Khademi M.; de Saint Priest O.; Schmid Mast M. and Zehnder C. (2021). The Problem of Demand Effects in Power Studies: Moving Beyond Power Priming. The Leadership Quarterly, 32, 4, 101496.
DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2021.101496
Lonati S.; Quiroga B.F.; Zehnder C. and Antonakis J. (2018). On doing relevant and rigorous experiments: Review and recommendations. Journal of Operations Management, 64, 19-40.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jom.2018.10.003
Bartling B.; Grieder M. and Zehnder C. (2017). Competitive pricing reduces wasteful counterproductive behaviors. Journal of Public Economics, 156, 34-47.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2017.08.007
Zehnder C.; Herz H. and Bonardi J.-P. (2017). A productive clash of cultures: Injecting economics into leadership research. The Leadership Quarterly, 28, 65-85.
DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2016.10.004
Chassang S. and Zehnder C. (2016). Rewards and punishments: informal contracting through social preferences. Theoretical Economics, 11, 1145-1179.
DOI: 10.3982/TE2063
Bendahan S.; Zehnder C.; Pralong F.P. and Antonakis J. (2015). Leader corruption depends on power and testosterone. The Leadership Quarterly, 26, 101-122.
DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2014.07.010
Fehr E.; Hart O. and Zehnder C. (2015). How do informal agreements and revision shape contractual reference points?. Journal of the European Economic Association, 13, 1-28.
DOI: 10.1111/jeea.12098
Herz H.; Schunk D. and Zehnder C. (2014). How do judgmental overconfidence and overoptimism shape innovative activity?. Games and Economic Behavior, 83, 1-23.
DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2013.11.001
Eisenegger C.; Pedroni A.; Rieskamp J.; Zehnder C.; Ebstein R.; Fehr E. and Knoch D. (2013). DAT1 polymorphism determines L-DOPA effects on learning about others' prosociality. PLoS ONE, 8, e67820.
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0067820
Falk A.; Meier S. and Zehnder C. (2013). Do lab experiments misrepresent social preferences? The case of self-selected student samples. Journal of the European Economic Association, 11, 839-852.
DOI: 10.1111/jeea.12019
Falk. A. and Zehnder. C. (2013). A city-wide experiment on trust discrimination. Journal of Public Economics, 100, 15-27.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2013.01.005
Barmettler F.; Fehr E. and Zehnder C. (2012). Big experimenter is watching you! Anonymity and prosocial behavior in the laboratory. Games and Economic Behavior, 75, 17-34.
DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2011.09.003
Fehr E.; Hart O. and Zehnder C. (2011). Contracts as reference points - Experimental evidence. American Economic Review, 101, 493-525.
Brown M. and Zehnder C. (2010). The emergence of information sharing in credit markets. Journal of Financial Intermediation, 19, 255-278.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jfi.2009.03.001
Fehr E.; Brown M. and Zehnder C. (2009). On Reputation - A Microfoundation of Contract Enforcement and Price Rigidity. The Economic Journal, 119, 333-353.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0297.2008.02240.x
Fehr E.; Goette L. and Zehnder C. (2009). A Behavioral Account of the Labor Market: The Role of Fairness Concerns. Annual Review of Economics, 1, 355-384.
DOI: 10.1146/annurev.economics.050708.143217
Fehr E.; Hart O. and Zehnder C. (2009). Contracts, Reference Points, and Competition - Behavioral Effects of the Fundamental Transformation. Journal of the European Economic Association, 7, 561-572.
DOI: 10.1162/JEEA.2009.7.2-3.561
Brown M. and Zehnder C. (2007). Credit Reporting, Relationship Banking, and Loan Repayment. Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, 39, 1883-1918.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1538-4616.2007.00092.x
Falk A.; Fehr E. and Zehnder C. (2006). Fairness Perceptions and Reservation Wages - The Behavioral Effects of Minimum Wage Laws. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 121, 1347-1381.
Working Papers
“When Talking Doesn’t Help: On the Limits of Communication and the Value of Simple Contracts” (with Ernst Fehr and Oliver Hart).
“Leveraging Social Comparisons: The Role of Peer Assignment Policies” (with Jan Schmitz and Julien Senn).
“How good can bad leaders be? The opportunity costs of leader selection” (with Matthieu Légeret and Benjamin Tur).
Contributions to Books
Zehnder C. (2016). Incomplete Contracts, Reference Points and Communication. The Impact of Incomplete Contracts on Economics. Oxford University Press.
Foray D., Grieder M., Lalive R. ; Zehnder C. (2013). Peux-tu me dire si je dois lire cet article? Une introduction théorique et expérimentale à l'évaluation de la recherche par les non-scientifiques. Penser la valeur d'usage des sciences (pp. 199-212). Paris: Editions des archives contemporaines.
Zehnder C. (2011). A behavioral view of employment: The role of fairness for motivation. Responsible management practices for the 21st century. Pearson Education, Paris.
Fehr E., Goette L. ; Zehnder C. (2009). The Behavioral Economics of the Labor Market: Central Findings and Their Policy Implications. Policymaking Insights From Behavioral Economics (pp. 171-240). Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Boston, Massachusetts.
Fehr E. , Zehnder C. (2009). Altruism (Economics perspective). The Oxford Companion to Emotion and the Affective Sciences (pp. 24-26). Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.
Fehr E. , Zehnder C. (2009). Trust. The Oxford Companion to Emotion and the Affective Sciences (pp. 392-393). Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.