Research

My Research Philosophy

Much of the work that I do now contains both "theory and experiments". I am a strong believer in writing the theory first, deriving rigorous predictions, and then stringently testing them with experiments. I first try to spot a fundamental and important problem, and if I am interested in solving it. I then follow it up and think next about what sort of tools are needed to solve the problem (but not the other way around).
We learn a great deal from empirical rejections of aspects of a prior theoretical model. I am not in favour of using backward engineering to write just-so theory once specific experimental results are obtained. This practice is unfortunately not uncommon, easy to spot, and such a theory has often, but not always, limited use.
I am also not a big fan of applied research that does not, at a minimum, derive a clear link between the evidence and the relevant theory or tells us where the theory fails or is unsatisfactory or in need to improvement. The steepest progress comes from using both theory and evidence.

Research Interests

My past research covers almost all the main areas of behavioral economics, except neuroeconomics, and I am genuinely interested in questions that push the research frontiers forward. In the past I have worked on theory and applications in behavioral decision theory; other-regarding preferences; time discounting; behavioral game theory; and bounded rationality.
A lot of my recent research has involved the interface of social norms, conditional reciprocity, and emotions, using psychological game theory, while invoking reasonable restrictions on belief heirarchies that are motivated by the underlying evidence. We have tried to make novel theoretical and empirical contributions using this sort of machinery to diverse areas in economics. However, my current work is not limited to this framework and includes the theoretical foundations of risk and time preferences; the study of human behavior towards climate change; the behavioral determinants of occupational choice; moral hazard in teams; macroeconomic issues of climate change under complex adaptive dynamics; religious polarization; why people vote?; and the link between precautionary savings, risk, and loss aversion.

Recently Published/Forthcoming Research (with links)

(2025) Green technology adoption under uncertainty, increasing returns, and complex adaptive dynamics. Forthcoming Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. Link to the Journal Open Access version.
(2025) Principles of Behavioral Economics: Microeconomics and Human Behavior. Cambridge University Press. Published with solutions manual on 16 January 2025. Publishers Website and Amazon UK and Amazon USA.
(2025) Loss Aversion and Tax evasion: Theory and Evidence. Arthaniti: Journal of Economic Theory and Practice. Published online 13 January 2025. Open Access here. (With Narges Hajimoladarvish and Pavan Mamidi)
(2024) Religious identity, trust, reciprocity, and prosociality: Theory and Evidence. Journal of Development Economics. Volume 166, 103192. (With Maxine Wei and Pavan Mamidi)
(2023) Classical and Beliefs-Based Models of Gift Exchange: Theory and Evidence. Games and Economic Behavior, 138: 171-196 (With Menging Wei and Ali al-Nowaihi)
(2022) Psychological and Social Motivations in Microfinance Contracts: Theory and Evidence. Journal of Development Economics. Vol. 158, 102921. (with Junaid Arshad and Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2022) Bounded Rationality: Heuristics, Judgement, and Public Policy, MIT Press (Joint with Cass Suntein).
(2021) Book Review of the Handbook of Experimental Game Theory. Journal of Economic Literature, June 2021 issue.
(2021) Identity and Redistribution: Theory and Evidence. Economica, 88(350): 499-531. (with Emma Manifold and Ali-al Nowaihi).
(2021) Behavioral economics and rationality. in Handbook of Rationality. MIT Press: Massachusetts. (with Ali al-Nowaihi)

Older papers can be found below.

Papers Under Review (with links)

Green Technology Adoption, Complexity, and the Role of Public Policy: A Simple Theoretical Model. (With Paolo Zeppini) R&R at Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.
Norms, Emotions, and Culture in Human Cooperation and Punishment: Theory and Evidence (With Maxine Wei).
Morality, Altruism, and Occupation Choice: Theory and Evidence (With Maxine Wei and Pavan Mamidi)
Preferences over Time and under Uncertainty: Theoretical Foundations: (With Ali al-Nowaihi).
Climate Change Risk, and Human Behavior: Theory and Evidence. With Narges Hajimoladarvish and Pavan Mamidi.
Precautionary savings, loss aversion, and risk: Theory and Evidence. With Narges Hajimoladarvish and Konstantinos Georgalos.
Loss Aversion and Tax evasion: Theory and Evidence With Narges Hajimoladarvish and Pavan Mamidi.

Research in Progress

Why do people vote?: Theory and Evidence. With Mengxing Wei and Pavan Mamidi.
The behavioral economics of contractual choice in teams: Theory and Evidence. With Mengxing Wei and Pavan Mamidi.
Psychological and social factors in the incentive compatibility condition in economics: Theory and Evidence. With Mengxing Wei.
Entitlements, guilt, and the commons: Theory and Evidence

Older Published Papers

(2019) The Behavioral Foundations of New Economic Thinking (with Eric Beinhocker). INET Oxford Working Paper.
(2019) Quantum decision theory, bounded rationality and the Ellsberg paradox. Studies in Microeconomics, special issue on Behavioral and Experimental Economics in Practice. Volume 7, Issue 1: 110-139. (joint with Ali al-Nowaihi and Mengxing Wei).
(2019) Heuristics and Public Policy: Decision Making Under Bounded Rationality. Discussion Paper No. 06/2018, Harvard Law School, John M. Olin Centre for Law, Economics and Business. (with Ali al-Nowaihi and Cass Sunstein) also published in Studies in Microeconomics, special issue on Behavioral and Experimental Economics in Practice.Volume 7, Issue 1: 7-58.
(2019) Public goods games and psychological utility: Theory and evidence. Published in the special issue on Psychological Game Theory in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, vol. 167(C), pages 361-390 (with Menging Wei and Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2019) Human Ethicality: Evidence and Insights from Behavioral Economics. Handbook of Ethics and Economics. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
(2018) Behavioural Economics and the theory of crime, punishment and litigation. In The Research Handbook on Behavioural Law and Economics. Edited by Joshua Teitelbaum and Kathryn Zeiler. Edward Elgar. ISBN: 1849805679 (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2017) Book review of Herbert Gintis. Individuality and Entanglement: The Moral and Material Bases of Human Social Life. In Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture. Vol 1, No. 2.
(2017) The Ellsberg paradox: A challenge to quantum decision theory? Journal of Mathematical Psychology. 78: 40-50. (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2016) The Foundations of Behavioral Economic Analysis. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
(2015) Evidential equilibria: Heuristics and biases in static games of complete information, in Games 6(4), 637-677. (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2015) Strategic monetary and fiscal policy interaction in a liquidity trap. In The Handbook of Post Crisis Financial Modelling. Edited by Emmanuel Haven et al. Palgrave Macmillan. (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2013) An extension of the Becker Proposition to non-expected utility theory, Mathematical Social Sciences, 65: 10-20 (with Ali al-Nowaihi). Science Direct Top 25 Paper. DOI:10.1016/j.mathsocsci.2012.06.005
(2012) Hyperbolic Punishment Functions, Review of Law and Economics (Berkeley Electronic Press Journals). 8: 759–787 (joint with Ali al-Nowaihi). DOI:10.1515/1555-5879.1570.
(2012) 'Behavioral Economics.' in the Encyclopaedia of Human Behavior, Elsevier. ISBN: 978-0-08-096180-4. (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2011) ' Strategic Monetary and Fiscal Policy Interaction and Optimal Institutional Design when there is the Possibility of a Zero Lower Bound on Interest rate', Oxford Economic Papers. 63: 700-721. (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2011) 'Probability weighting functions'. In Wiley Encyclopaedia of Operations Research and Management Science, John Wiley & Sons, New Jersey. Online ISBN: 9780470400531. (with Ali al-Nowaihi)
(2010) Redistributive policy with heterogenous social preferences of voters , with Ali al-Nowaihi, Lead article in European Economic Review, 54 (6), pp. 743–759
(2010) Optimal income taxation in the presence of tax evasion: Expected utility versus prospect theory, with Ali al-Nowaihi. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 75: 313-337.
(2010) The existence of a Condorcet winner when voters have other regarding preferences, (with Ali al-Nowaihi) Journal of Public Economic Theory, 12 (5), pp. 897-922.
(2009) A value function that explains the magnitude and sign effects, (with Ali al-Nowaihi), Economics Letters. 105, 224-229.
(2008) A note on the Loewenstein-Prelec theory of intertemporal choice: Corrigendum, Mathematical Social Sciences. 52, 99-108 (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2008) The Utility Function Under Prospect Theory, Economics Letters 99, p.337–339 (with Ali al-Nowaihi and Ian Bradley). Science direct Top 25 paper, April June 2008.
(2007) Optimal distribution of powers in a federation: a simple unified framework, Bulletin of Economic Research 59(3), p. 197-229. (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2007) Corruption in a hierarchical asymmetric information game, Journal of Public Economic Theory, 9 (4) pp. 727-755. (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2007) Why do people pay taxes: Expected utility versus prospect theory, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization Vol. 64, pages 171–192. (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2006) A Note On The Loewenstein-Prelec Theory Of Intertemporal Choice Mathematical Social Sciences, Volume 52, Issue 1, Pages 99-108 (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2006) A simple derivation of Prelec’s probability weighting function, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 50 (6), pages 521-524 (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2006) A simple model of optimal tax systems: taxation, measurement and uncertainty, Manchester School, 74 (6), pp. 645-669. (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2004) An Invitation to Behavioural Environmental Economics forthcoming in Guljit Arora, Sustainable Development: An Interdisciplinary Perspective (Research and Publishing House: New Delhi). (with Ali al-Nowaihi).
(2003) The Political Economy of Redistribution Under Asymmetric Information, Journal of Public Economics, Vol. 87/9-10: 2069-2103.
(2002) Optimal Consumption Taxes And Social Security Under Tax Measurement Problems And Uncertainty, International Tax And Public Finance, Volume 9, Number 6, pp. 673-85.
(2001) The Economics of Information in Jonathan Michie (eds.) 'Readers Guide to the Social Sciences', Vol. I, Fitzroy-Dearborn Publishers.
(2001) Economics And Politics in Jonathan Michie (eds.) 'Readers Guide to the Social Sciences', Vol. I, Fitzroy-Dearborn Publishers.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse