Behavioural and Experimental Economics

Our research and expertise extend to several fields within economics. Our work in organisational economics focuses on discrimination in the workplace, the determinants of female representation at different levels within companies, or the impact pay inequality has on productivity. Our research on market design looks at how we can eliminate market inefficiencies that arise in thin markets, how disclosure of information can affect regulatory policy, or the optimal design of auctions. Our work on social preferences examines not only why and how we cooperate in social dilemma settings or engage in charitable actions, but also why we behave anti-socially. Our projects on individual decision-making under risk look at how to best provide probabilistic information to aid people making decisions under uncertainty. We also investigate how heuristics affect financial decision-making, or what interventions may help people make better savings decisions.

Our work is published in leading journals in economics (American Economic Review, Review of Economic Studies), management (Management Science), psychology (Psychological Science), and cross-disciplinary journals (Nature, Nature Human Behavior). We are proud to be a very diverse and inclusive group.

Behavioural and experimental economics are prominently represented in the teaching programmes in the department: we offer four undergraduate modules, as well as postgraduate training in our MSc Economics: Behavioural Insights pathway.

We are also the home of the Exeter Prize - the annual award for the best research publication in behavioural economics, experimental economics, and decision theory.