Why Lab Experiments Are So Important

Julia Shvets is an economist at the University of Cambridge and fellow at Christ's College. Her research focuses primarily on micro- and behavioural economics: exploring why people make the decisions they make.

In this episode we discuss two of her recent papers. The first is about "overconfidence" — why people often think they are better than they have any reason to be. The second is on "rank incentives" — that is, how much people are inherently motivated by social prestige. We also explore many of the challenges that this research faces, especially what biases lab experiments might have.

You can read much more on these topics in our accompanying write-up: hearthisidea.com/episodes/julia

If you have any feedback or suggestions for future guests, feel free get in touch through our website or by using the star rating form on each episode page. Please also consider leaving us a review wherever you're listening to this. If you want to support the show more directly and help us keep hosting these episodes online, consider leaving a tip.

Thanks for listening!