Jonathan Stäbler

Research Interests:

• Experimental  & Behavioral Economics

• Public Economics

• Political Economy

Overall, my work focuses on competitive environemnts. In a first research strand, I study destructive and fradulent behavior and ways how to mitigate it. Specifically, I study sabotage, cheating, antisocial preferences and motivated beliefs in contests, and investigate whether institutions such as information disclosure, cost-shifting rules, punishment, and group size can help to  mitigate the welfare-destroying effects of destructive and fraudulent behavior.

In a second strand, I am studying  how the actual and perceived role of merit in competitive outcomes shapes redistribution and social cohesion. More broadly, I am also interested in fairness perceptions and the related emergence and enforcement of social norms.

Finally, I also study specific questions related to managing excess demand in health care, local information groups for repeated large-scale public goods settings, and betrayal aversion.

Methodologically, I mainly employ online and laboratory experiments that are guided by theoretical models.