6th Winter School in Behavioral Economics and Experimental Research: Social Behavior in Organizations and Markets

January 14-19, 2018

Christian Zehnder

Prof. Christian Zehnder, UNIL

Prof. Holger Herz, UNIFR

Prof. Björn Bartling (University of Zurich)

Prof. Alexander Cappelen (University of Bergen)

Prof. Adrian Bruhin (University of Lausanne)

The first two of our speakers for this year's winter school are leading experts in social behavior in organizations and markets. Björn Bartling is Professor of Economics at the University of Zurich. He uses experimental methods to study the impact of non-selfish motivations and behavioral biases on decision making, governance structures, and allocations in markets and institutions. Alexander W. Cappelen is a professor at the Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics (NHH), where his academic positions include co-director of the research group The Choice Lab, and Head of Centre for Ethics and Economics. His research interests are behavioral, experimental and public economics, business ethics, social choice theory, political philosophy and distributive justice.

The third speaker, Adrian Bruhin, is an expert for the analysis of type-based heterogeneity in behavioral data sets. In the methodology-oriented part of this year's winter school we will focus on the econometric analysis and identification of subpopulations within the overall population. These methods (in particular, finite mixture models) have recently increased a lot of attention in the social sciences. The reason is that researchers have recognised that understanding a behavioral phenomenon often requires the analysis of the interplay between different subgroups. Adrian will provide an introduction to these methods and will provide examples from his own research that clarify how these techniques can be applied. 

Champéry - Hôtel Le National

The winter school will start on Monday, January 15 (arrival on Sunday evening) and will end on Friday, January 19 (at about 4pm). There will be lectures on Monday morning, Monday afternoon, Tuesday morning and Thursday morning. Parts of Monday afternoon, parts of Tuesday afternoon and Thursday afternoon will be dedicated to group work and projects. During the afternoons the lecturers and organizers are always available for discussions and office hours. There will also be dedicated slots for discussion of personal projects (e.g. dissertation papers) with the speakers. Friday will be reserved for the presentation of group projects developed during the week. On Wednesday the participants have the possibility to benefit from the fantastic winter sport environment in Champéry (Champéry provides direct access to the "Portes du Soleil" ski resort, see http://en.portesdusoleil.com/champery-ski-resort.html). All participants are strongly encouraged to bring their winter sport equipment with them for this purpose. 

For students of the CUSO universities (Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel and Fribourg), and from the university of Bern, accommodation and meals will be covered by the CUSO. Travel expenses will be reimbursed based on half-fare train ticket (2^nd class) from the student's university to the place of the activity.

The winter school is open to all Ph.D. students in economics, management, psychology and the neurosciences.

The application deadline is December 15, 2017.

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