11th Summer School in Behavioral Economics and Experimental Research

June 24-25, 2025

Christian Zehnder

Prof. Christian Zehnder, University of Lausanne

Prof. Holger Herz, University of Fribourg

Guido Friebel, Goethe University in Frankfurt 

Frauke von Bieberstein (University of Bern)

The summer school and workshop will take place in Kandersteg in the canton of Bern. 

The summer school will be combined with the workshop so that participants also have the chance to present their own research and to get useful feedback from experienced scholars and fellow students.

Our guest speakers will be:

Guido Friebel (Goethe University in Frankfurt)

Her research focuses on organization and personnel economics. He conducts randomized controlled trials in collaboration with firms to improve both productivity and worker welfare while testing key theoretical concepts. Additionally, he analyzes career and promotion data and develops models on careers, communication, and talent management.

Frauke von Bieberstein (University of Bern)

Her research focuses on behavioral and experimental economics, particularly in organizational and personnel economics. She investigates how contract design, incentives, and social preferences influence behavior in organizations and has also explored methods to measure pro-environmental behavior.

The summer school will start right after the workshop on Tuesday morning (June 24) and will end on Wednesday evening (June 25). There will be lectures on Tuesday morning, Wednesday morning and Wednesday afternoon. Tuesday afternoon will be reserved for a social event that includes a short hiking tour, potentially followed by a mountain dinner at a beautiful mountain lake. Please bring your hiking equipment with you (in particular, hiking or trekking shoes and a rain jacket). If you don't like hiking, there will be alternative options.

Before, between and after the lectures the guest speakers and organizers will be available for personal meetings to discuss research.

The summer school and workshop are open to all PhD students in economics, management, psychology and the neurosciences.

We encourage participants to subscribe to both events, because the timing foreseen in the program ensures a perfectly smooth transition from the workshop to the summer school. However, it is also possible to only participate in one of the two events.

Kandersteg

Participants who would like to take the school for credit will have the chance to work on a personal project after the summer school. The organizers will grade this project.

Participants will be hosted at Seiler's vintage hotel

 Arrangements for the group will be made by the program coordinator.

Participation fees for PhD students of the CUSO universities (Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel, Fribourg and IHEID) and of the University of Bern: 

Summer school only: CHF 50 (room and meals included)
Summer school + workshop: CHF 50 (room and meals included)
Workshop only: none

Travel expenses will be reimbursed based on a second-class half-fare return Swiss rail ticket between the university to which the student is attached and the location of the activity (also valid for travel in a private car).

Detailed information on the management directives can be found here:

https://www.cuso.ch/structure-et-administration/directives-de-gestion

Participation fees for PhD students affiliated with universities outside of the CUSO network:

Summer school and workshop: CHF 821 (June 23-25)
Only summer school: CHF 624 (June 24-25)
Only workshop: CHF 197 (June 23)

External participants also need to cover travel expenses themselves.

The application deadline is May 23, 2025. Acceptance decisions will be communicated by May 30.

Please make sure that you sign up for all relevant events: in particular, if you want to participate in both events, you need to sign up twice! 

Important: If you would like to present at the workshop, please submit a title and abstract to Bénédicte Moreira ([email protected])

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If you have any question, please feel free to contact Bénédicte Moreira, the program coordinator at behavioural-research(at)cuso(dot)ch