Authors: da Conceição, Diogo V. N. & de Witte, Kristof
Abstract: This paper examines the impact of anchoring, a cognitive bias by which individuals rely too heavily on an initial piece of information when making judgments, on primary school students' expectations in Flanders, Belgium. Anchoring bias is a prime example of how economic valuations and expectations can be systematically influenced by arbitrary reference points, even in incentivised and information-rich environments. Using a randomised controlled trial, students exposed to a low, unrelated numerical prompt (the anchor) believed that they could recall, on average, two fewer words out of a total of 30 than their peers in the control group, corresponding to a decline of approximately 7%. This effect was particularly pronounced amongst students with high socioeconomic status, low academic achievement, and negative perceptions of school, as well as amongst high-achieving students. The paper proposes and empirically tests a novel theoretical model, whereby anchoring operates through students' subjective beliefs about the likelihood of their predictions being correct, conditional on exposure to an anchor, or incorrect. Once this belief-based mechanism is accounted for, the anchoring effect disappears. Understanding when and for whom cognitive biases emerge, particularly early in the learning process when decision-making habits are still forming, can inform education policy and the careful design of effective and targeted interventions in school settings.
Authors: da Conceição, Diogo V. N. & de Witte, Kristof
Abstract: This paper studies whether informational nudges affect pupils' demand for remedial education. Evidence from a classroom-based randomised controlled trial conducted in 23 primary schools in Flanders, Belgium, involving 971 pupils aged 6 to 12 is reported. Students were randomly assigned to a control group or to one of four brief, age-appropriate informational treatments highlighting the role of regular schooling, summer school participation, or socio-emotional development. The primary outcome is pupils' stated willingness to attend a free summer school programme, with secondary outcomes capturing socio-emotional dimensions such as self-esteem and school belonging. This paper reports a well-powered experimental evidence of precisely estimated null average effects of one-time informational nudges on pupils' demand for remedial education, consistent with belief-updating models in low-take-up settings. Consistent with prior theory, some heterogeneity patterns appear across pre-specified subgroups, but none survive corrections for multiple hypothesis testing. Overall, the findings suggest that simple informational nudges, when delivered once and to children rather than their parents, are unlikely to meaningfully increase summer school participation and should complement, rather than substitute, broader policy tools.
Authors: da Conceição, Diogo V. N. & de Witte, Kristof
Abstract: Coming soon
Approval nr. of Privacy and Ethical Review by Katholieke Universiteit Leuven: G-2024-8035-R2(MAR)
AEA Randomized Controlled Trials Registry, RCT ID: AEARCTR-0014302
De Witte, K & da Conceição. 2024. "The Influence of Nudging on Summer School Attendance Intentions: A RCT in Flanders." AEA RCT Registry. September 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.14302-1.1
Authors: Eduardo Costa, Diogo Conceição, Francisco Von Hafe, Christopher Millett
Published in: Portuguese Journal of Public Health
Costa, E., da Conceição, D. V. N. da, von Hafe, F., & Millett, C. (2023). The First Quantification of the Carbon Footprint of the Portuguese National Health Service: A Positive but Insufficient Step Forward. Portuguese Journal of Public Health, 41(2), 81–82. https://doi.org/10.1159/000530426
Authors: Luís Catela Nunes, Ana Balcão Reis, Pedro Freitas, Diogo Conceição
Published by: Nova SBE Economics of Education Knowledge Center
Summary: In this Policy Brief we analyse the turnover of teachers between groups of public schools in mainland Portugal between the academic years 2008/09 and 2017/18. We also investigate whether these movements are associated with the characteristics of the groups and the composition of their teaching staff, for example, in terms of the type of contract and the level of education. In the current context of teacher shortages in Portugal, where stability is a determining factor in attracting teachers to the career, it is particularly important to know the degree of turnover of current teachers in different types of schools. This work intends to contribute to a more detailed knowledge of the turnover of teachers and, in this way, to support public policies that lead to greater stability of teachers in schools.
Read it here (only in Portuguese): Nunes, L. C., Reis, A. B., Freitas P., Conceição, D. (2022). Rotatividade dos docentes nas escolas públicas portuguesas. (Policy Brief). Centro de Economia da Educação da Nova School of Business and Economics.
Authors: Luís Catela Nunes, Ana Balcão Reis, Pedrei Freitas, Diogo Conceição
Published by: Nova SBE Economics of Education Knowledge Center
Summary: In this Policy Brief, we frame the future recruitment needs for new teachers and some characteristics of the current teachers compared with other education systems. The Nova SBE Economics of Education also present some summary statistics on the recent evolution of Portuguese students' achievement, which should be present in the moment of defining educational policies to recruit new teachers. Finally, the Nova SBE Economics of Education lists several education policies that have been presented and considered to mitigate the lack of teachers. We also identify past studies in the scientific literature about similar policies implemented in other educational systems, pointing out the evidence of their impact on the recruitment of teachers and student achievement.
Read it here (only in Portuguese): Nunes, L. C., Reis A. B., Freitas P., Conceição D. (2022). Medidas Educativas no Contexto Atual de Falta de Professores. (Policy Brief). Centro de Economia da Educação da Nova School of Business and Economics
Authors: Alexandre Mendonça, António Melo, Diogo Conceição, Filipe Caires, Mariana Esteves, Pedro Rosado
Supervision: Filipe Correia, Susana Peralta
Summary:
We estimate that the size of the illegal market of cannabis for recreational use in Portugal is between 36 and 58 tonnes;
In the event of cannabis legalisation, we estimate the legal market size to range from 23.6 to 39.3 tonnes (conservative scenario) or reach 51.2 tonnes (optimistic scenario);
Fiscal revenue would be between e52.7M to e70.8M (conservative scenario) or reach e151.3M (optimistic scenario);
Legal cannabis for adult use would create between 1 325 and 6 624 jobs. Those jobs would be associated with a total amount of contributions to Social Security ranging between e0.576M and e2.879M, which add to the tax revenues previously discussed;
These results should be interpreted with caution. The assumptions of this work are extensively discussed below. Any policy proposals based on our analysis should reflect the nature of our assumptions.
Mendonça, A., Melo, A., da Conceição, D. V. N., Caires, F., Esteves, M. & Rosado, P. (2022). Cannabis for Recreational Use by Adults in Portugal: Economic Impact A Tax Revenue Approach. June 2022. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11HRSuJsmiu5uRL8R0qZN9IEDFMxuMFFq/view?usp=sharing
Date - July 6 - 8, 2026
Location - Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom
Awards - 2026 RES Scholars ; Paper ID 356 ; Session G15: Behavioural/Experimental Economics 2
Date - May 13 - 16, 2025
Location - Detroit, United States of America
13th Edition
Date - June 25 - 27, 2025
Location - Department of Economics, Social Studies, Applied Mathematics, and Statistics, University of Torino , Turin, Italy
14th Edition
Date - June 23 - 25, 2026
Location - NOVA School of Business and Economics, NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
Date - June 14 - 16, 2026
Location - Catanzaro, Italy
6th Edition (as an organiser)
Date - January 20 - 21, 2022
Location - NOVA School of Business and Economics, NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
7th Edition (as a non-presenting participant)
Date - January 18 - 19, 2024
Location - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management, University of Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
8th Edition
Date - January 22 - 23, 2026
Location - NOVA School of Business and Economics, NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
10th Edition
Date - September 5 - 6, 2024
Location - Department of Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano – Bovisa Campus, Milan, Italy
11th Edition
Date - September 18 - 19, 2025
Location - ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Budapest, Hungary
12th Edition
Date - October 15 - 16, 2026
Location - ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute), Dublin, Ireland
Date - September 18 - 19, 2025
Location - ELTE Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Budapest, Hungary
2024 Edition
Date - March 28 - 29, 2024
Location - Faculty of Business and Economics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
2025 Edition
Date - April 3 - 4, 2025
Location - Faculty of Business and Economics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
2026 Edition
Date - April 2 - 3, 2026
Location - Faculty of Business and Economics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Date - September 15 - 16, 2026
Location - Estonian Business School, Tallinn, Estonia
Date - September 9, 2025
Location - KU Leuven, Brussels, Belgium
2023/2024 Academic Year
Date - June 03, 2024
Location - Faculty of Business and Economics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
2024/2025 Academic Year
Date - October 16, 2024 ; June 11, 2025
Location - Faculty of Business and Economics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
2025/2026 Academic Year
Date - November 5, 2025
Location - Faculty of Business and Economics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
2024/2025 Academic Year
Date - October 10, 2024
Location - NOVA School of Business and Economics, NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
2025/2026 Academic Year
Date - November 13, 2025
Location - NOVA School of Business and Economics, NOVA University Lisbon, Lisbon, Portugal
Date - September 3, 2024
Location - Faculty of Business and Economics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Date - October 13 - 14, 2025
Location - Oslo, Norway
Date - November 14, 2025
Location - Faculty of Business and Economics, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium
Research Assistant at the Nova SBE Economics of Education Knowledge Center and NOVAFRICA, under the supervision of Professors Ana Balcão Reis and Cátia Batista: Coordination of field work in Cape Verde, implementing a Randomized Control Trial to examine how the provision of tailored information on the costs and benefits of a college degree in Portugal impacts the migration decisions of high school students from Cape Verde to Portugal. This field work was carried out under the project “Higher Future – The role of information on student migration from Cape Verde”, funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF), Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), and the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN).
Duration - 09/23 to 02/24
Research Assistante - Academic research concerning the project “Teaching and learning at distance in Portugal during COVID-19 times”, financed by The Social Observatory of the "la Caixa" Foundation, and other individual reports of scientific nature.
Coordinator - In charge of project management and institutional communication. Organization of the 2022 LESE conference.
Nunes, L. C., Reis, A. B., Freitas P., da Conceição, D. V. N. (2022). Rotatividade dos docentes nas escolas públicas portuguesas. (Policy Brief). Centro de Economia da Educação da Nova School of Business and Economics. URL: https://www.novasbe.unl.pt/Portals/0/KnowledgeCenters/Economics%20of%20Education/Projects/Policy%20Brief%20Rotatividade%20Docentes/Policy%20Briefing_2_Final_PT.pdf?_gl=1*dkwbzr*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTczNzE5NjQ1My4xNzI2ODM2MDk3*_ga_NRJH2682FN*MTcyNjgzNjA5Ni4xLjEuMTcyNjgzNjEwNi4wLjAuMjQxNzQyMDU1
Nunes, L. C., Reis A. B., Freitas P., da Conceição, D. V. N. (2022). Medidas Educativas no Contexto Atual de Falta de Professores. (Policy Brief). Centro de Economia da Educação da Nova School of Business and Economics. URL: https://www.novasbe.unl.pt/Portals/0/KnowledgeCenters/Economics%20of%20Education/Projects/Policy%20Brief%20Necessidades%20Docentes/Policy%20Briefing_Midterm_Final.pdf?_gl=1*1v13glt*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTczNzE5NjQ1My4xNzI2ODM2MDk3*_ga_NRJH2682FN*MTcyNjgzNjA5Ni4xLjEuMTcyNjgzNjEwNi4wLjAuMjQxNzQyMDU1
Reis, A. B., Lima, G., Nunes, L. C., Freitas, P., & da Conceição, D. V. N. (2021). Ensino a Distância e Recuperação de Aprendizagens: 4o Questionário a Professores. NOVA SBE Economics of Education Knowledge Center. https://kc-economics-of-education.github.io/ensino-distancia-recuperacao-aprendizagens/?_gl=1*1x1b5v4*_up*MQ..*_ga*MTU4NjY0MDUxMi4xNzM4Njc3NTEz*_ga_NRJH2682FN*MTczODY3NzUxMi4xLjAuMTczODY3NzUxMi4wLjAuNDgyMTk3Mjk
Nunes, L. C., Reis, A. B., Freitas, P., & da Conceição, D. V. N. (2021). Online teaching and learning in Portugal-during the covid-19 pandemic differences between public and private schools. The Social Observatory of the “La Caixa” Foundation. https://oobservatoriosocial.fundacaolacaixa.pt/en/-/online-teaching-and-learning-in-portugal-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-differences-between-public-and-private-schools-1
Duration - 02/21 to 07/22
Project: "Cannabis for Recreational Use by Adults in Portugal: Economic Impact A Tax Revenue Approach"
Mendonça, A., Melo, A., da Conceição, D. V. N., Caires, F., Esteves, M. & Rosado, P. (2022). Cannabis for Recreational Use by Adults in Portugal: Economic Impact A Tax Revenue Approach. June 2022. https://drive.google.com/file/d/11HRSuJsmiu5uRL8R0qZN9IEDFMxuMFFq/view?usp=sharing
Duration - 11/21 to 06/22
Project “Do school reforms win elections?”
Duration - 01/22 to 03/22
Task 5.1 “Assessment of econometric model(s) currently used by the MoF to forecast the state budget revenues including the tax expenditures” in the project “Strenghtening the capacity of the Ministry of Finance of Azerbaijan in the area of Public Financial Management” (EuropeAid/138778/DH/SER/multi)
Duration - 07/21 to 08/21