» ESI Lecture Series

Friday lectures are open to anyone that would like to attend and will be from 3-4:30 p.m. in Wilkinson Hall, room 116, except when otherwise noted below. Thank you to the International Foundation for Research in Experimental Economics (IFREE) for previously sponsoring the lectures.

For a full listing of all events happening at the Economic Science Institute, view the Events Calendar.


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2023-2024 Lecture Guests

April 19, Anujit Chakraborty - Interpersonal Uncertainty as the Origin of Differences in Moral Behavior

Anujit's headshotAbstract: We show that several key patterns of prosocial behavior can be explained by interpersonal uncertainty – the uncertainty people perceive about how their actions impact other’s utility. Using standard social allocation decisions, we first replicate the classic patterns of ingroup favoritism, selfishness in dictator games, merit-based fairness ideals, and “avoiding the ask” behavior. We then show that these patterns also arise with almost identical distributions in inherently non-social allocation decisions where behavior reflects solely responses to interpersonal uncertainty. In these decisions, decision-makers are paid based on how their allocation would have impacted the recipient’s utility, but no one actually receives their allocation. Behavior across social and non-social decisions is highly correlated, and self-reported interpersonal uncertainty predicts behavior in both situations. Our results suggest that several patterns of social behavior previously attributed to disparate motivations may instead have a common, cognitive origin based on interpersonal uncertainty.

Bio: Anujit Chakraborty an Assistant Professor of Economics at UC Davis. He received my Ph.D. in Economics from the University of British Columbia, under Professor Yoram Halevy in 2017. His research fields are Economic Theory, Behavioral Economics, and Experimental Economics. 

April 26, Thomas Rietz - Peering into the Black Box: Trader Strategies in the Iowa Electronic Markets

Thomas R.'s headshotAbstract: We explore strategies employed by traders in the Iowa Electronic Markets’ 2020 Presidential Election Winner-Takes-All Market. We replicate previous research on trader mistakes while documenting behavior consistent with two new biases: a disposition effect and an endowment effect. We explore how markets populated by mistake-prone and biased traders can result in efficient pricing. Efficiency arises from interactions between many biased and mistake prone traders, the market structure, and a smaller number of significantly more rational price-determining traders. The dynamics are not explained fully by current theories on efficient markets, market microstructure, or behavioral finance.

Bio: Thomas Rietz earned his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Iowa. He was a faculty member at Northwestern University before returning to Iowa as a finance faculty member 1993. In addition to being an award winning teacher, Professor Rietz has received a number of research awards and published in top outlets in a range of fields including: Finance, Economics, Game Theory, Management, Forecasting, Computer Science, Political Science, Law and Multidisciplinary Science. His work has been the subject of many popular press features appearing in such places as: Barron’s, Bloomberg News and Radio, CBS Market Watch, The Economist, The Financial Times, Good Morning America, CNNfn, Reuters, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. Professor Rietz combines theoretical, empirical and experimental work in his research in behavioral economics and finance. Current interest areas include: trust and trustworthy behavior, reputation formation and reformation, rationality of decision making, asset allocation choices and prediction markets. He served three terms as the section head for finance on the executive committee of the Economic Science Association, the professional organization for experimental economists. Professor Rietz is on the Iowa Electronic Markets (IEM) steering committee and uses the IEM in both research and teaching.

May 10, 2024, Roman Sheremeta - Evacuation Behavior: Lessons for and From the War in Ukraine

Roman's headshotAbstract: Evacuations from natural disasters or war zones can save thousands of lives. While there is a substantial amount of literature on evacuation behavior in the context of natural disasters, the literature on evacuations from conflict zones is scarce. In this paper, we examine the existing literature on evacuation behavior, including our own studies conducted during the ongoing war in Ukraine. Most (but not all) of the findings from the natural disaster evacuation literature seem to be applicable to evacuation from war zones.

Bio: Roman Sheremeta is a founding rector of American University Kyiv, and a professor of economics at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from Purdue University and is a recipient of many research and teaching awards, including the 2018 Smith Ascending Scholar Prize for a "budding genius" in social science, as well as multiple grants, including the National Science Foundation and the Max Planck Institute grants. Sheremeta was listed as a Top Economic Thinker of Ukrainian descent by Forbes in 2015, a top-rated young economist in the world according to the IDEAS ranking in 2018, and recognized as the Best 40 Under 40 Professors by Poets and Quants in 2019. Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sheremeta has been actively involved in delivering humanitarian aid to Ukraine and working on various initiatives to rebuild Ukraine, including the National Recovery Council, an advisory board to the President of Ukraine.

Need disability Services?

Disability services will be provided upon request. If you require specific accommodations for attending a lecture, your request must be submitted no later than seven days prior to the lecture date.

Please submit requests or questions to: Cyndi Dumas at (714) 516-4513 or dumas@chapman.edu.