Michele Garagnani
I am a Senior Lecturer at the University of Melbourne, Department of Finance.
I am a neuroeconomist studying how basic processes interact to produce complex economic behavior. My research aims to formulate and test models of human behavior which accurately predict choices and process data (response times, neural activity, etc.), with the ultimate aim of helping people make better decisions.
In particular, I am developing and testing new methods to reveal preferences and their stability.
My research strategy combines both theoretical and empirical methods. I have worked in several subfields including decisions under risk, intertemporal choices, pain, investment behavior, moral decision making, and voting behavior. I am familiar with state-of-the-art research methods from different disciplines, examples include structural estimations, machine learning, EEG, and novel revealed preference methods using process data.
I received my PhD from the University of Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Carlos Alós-Ferrer and Prof. Ernst Fehr.
Publications
11. Improving Risky-Choice Predictions Using Response Times, JPE: Micro.
10. The Predictive Power of Risk Elicitation Tasks, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty.
9. Voting under Time Pressure (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer), Judgment and Decision Making.
8. The Gradual Nature of Economic Errors (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer), Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
7. Part-Time Bayesians: Incentives and Behavioral Heterogeneity in Belief Updating (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer), Management Science.
6. Strength of Preference and Decisions Under Risk (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer), Journal of Risk and Uncertainty.
5. Alós-Ferrer, Carlos, Buckenmaier, Johannes, Garagnani, Michele, and Ritschel, Alexander (forthcoming) "The Reinforcement Paradox: Monetary Incentives and Bayesian Updating" Economics Letters.
4. Alós-Ferrer, Carlos, Garcia-Segarra, Jaume and Garagnani, Michele "The Role of Payoff Valence on Voting: Egalitarian for Gains and Selfish for Losses" Frontiers in Psychology.
3. Alós-Ferrer, Carlos, and Garagnani, Michele (2021), "Choice Consistency and Strength of Preference" Economics Letters.
2. Alós-Ferrer, Carlos, and Garagnani, Michele (2020) "The Cognitive Foundations of Cooperation" Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
1. Alós-Ferrer, Carlos, and Garagnani, Michele (2016). "Cognitive Reflection, Decision Biases, and Response Times" Frontiers in Psychology.
Working Papers
1. An Inexpensive Method to Measure Toxoplasmosis and its Socio-Economic Consequences (with Anja Achtziger and Carlos Alós-Ferrer), working paper.
2. Economic Consequences of Numerical Adaptation (with Ferdinand Vieider), working paper.
3. Who Likes It More? Using Response Times To Elicit Group Preferences in Surveys (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer), working paper.
4. A Better Way of Measuring Acute Pain (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer, Petra Schweinhardt, and Philippe N. Tobler), working paper.
5. Transitivity Violations: Only Noise? (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer and Ernst Fehr), working paper.
6. Stochastic Choice and Preference Reversals (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer and Johannes Buckenmaier), working paper.
7. Regret Avoidance and Deliberate Randomization
(with Carlos Alós-Ferrer, Johannes Buckenmaier, and Aldo Rustichini), work in progress.
8. Noise and Bias (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer and Johannes Buckenmaier), working paper.
9. The Neural Foundations of Preference Reversals (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer), working paper.
10. Detection of Conflict in Economic Tasks (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer and Alexander Ritschel), working paper.
11. Errors Fast and Slow (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer), working paper.
12. Cognition and Social Motives in the Ultimatum Game (with Ennio Bilancini and Leonardo Boncinelli), working paper.
13. Revealing the Noise Behind Prospect Theory (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer and Ernst Fehr), work in progress.
14. The Determinants of the Disposition Effect (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer and Johannes Buckenmaier), work in progress.
15. The Neural Foundations of the Disposition Effect (with Carlos Alós-Ferrer), work in progress.
Awards, Grants, and Scholarships
1. Faculty Research Summit Fund, "Complexity of Decisions: An Interdisciplinary Perspective" (AUSD 60,000).
2. NextGenerationEU, Grant for Young Researchers, 2023
(following the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships, EUR 150,000).
3. Seal of Excellence for the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships, 2022
“The Neuroeconomics of Multi-Alternative Choices.”
4. Think Forward Initiative essay award (2nd prize), 2021.
5. Research Grant, Horizon 2020 Challenge: Europe in a changing world.
With Ennio Bilancini, Fausta Lui, and Leonardo Boncinelli (EUR 89,000).
6. Global Collaborative program tuition grant ($ 1,000).
7. Erasmus scholarship, 2008.