Game Changer - the game theory podcast

Cristina Bicchieri, the S.J. Patterson Harvie Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, shares her insights on social norms through the lens of game theory. She discusses how these unwritten rules shape behavior and the critical role they play in driving social change. The conversation highlights the impact of social norms on harmful practices like open defecation and child marriage, emphasizing the need for understanding community behaviors. Bicchieri also explores the influence of norms on poverty dynamics, illustrating how they can transform social interactions.

Stefaan De Rynck, Principal Advisor at the European Commission and former Senior Advisor to Michel Barnier, shares his firsthand insights on the Brexit negotiations. He breaks down the complex interplay of strategies employed by both the EU and the UK. The discussion covers the historical roots of Brexit, the challenges of maintaining EU unity, and the impact of fluctuating UK leadership. De Rynck also highlights how the negotiations shaped post-Brexit relations, paving the way for potential collaborations in various sectors.

In this episode, we discuss overconfidence and its underlying psychological mechanisms. Our guest Collin Raymond shares his research (joint work with David Huffman and Julia Shvets) based on a field study he conducted with managers in the context of their Bonus payment. We discuss their findings on how managers make overconfident predictions about their individual future performance. In the study they can link the overconfidence to managers having an overly-positive memory of past performance. We finish the discussion by deep-diving into other facets of overconfidence.    Collin Raymond is Associate Professor of Strategy and Business Economics at the Johnson School of Management of Cornell University. His research interests span Behavioural Economics, Experimental Economics, and Microeconomic Theory. He focuses on how individuals make decisions under uncertainty and the cognitive biases that influence these decisions. You can find the paper Collin describes in the interview here.

Paul Papayoanou discusses avoiding value drain in dealmaking, identifying four types of value-destructive behaviors. He emphasizes the importance of being a savvy strategist, balancing toughness and fairness. The role of preparation, reputation, and game theory in negotiation strategies is also explored, with insights on enhancing dealmaking outcomes in organizations.

In this episode, we discuss with Eduardo Azevedo his research on adverse selection in insurance markets. Eduardo gives details on recent developments in genomic advances, also in light of the significant price decrease for obtaining the individual genome. We discuss the possible long-term effect on the insurance market (e.g. specific health insurances) if individuals had access to their genome and obtained their individual risk profile. Based on that we discuss the potential for adverse selection and Eduardos initial heuristic findings.   Eduardo Azevedo is Professor of Business Economics and Public Policy at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on market design, applied microeconomic theory, and industrial organisation.

In this episode, we discuss with Greg Kubitz his research on loss aversion. Greg shares his research in which he targets to explain loss aversion using Game Theoretic approaches. He combines approaches such as the principal agent model to be able to look at loss aversion through the evolutionary lens considering realistic assumptions on biological constraints given through our neural system.   Greg Kubitz is senior lecturer in the School of Economics and Finance at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. His research interests lie mainly within the field of game theory, with particular emphasis on information design and its applications to industrial organisation and behavioural economics.

Researcher Yan Chen discusses group identity and discrimination, revealing how ingroup favoritism can lead to group conflicts and political polarization. She explores experiments on group discrimination, information avoidance, and belief updating, emphasizing the importance of understanding biases and seeking diverse perspectives to mitigate discrimination in society.

Researcher Isabelle Brocas discusses children's strategic decision-making abilities, revealing insights from long-term experimental studies. The podcast explores brain development's influence on choices, age-related variations, bilingual education impacts, different types of logic in kids, and ways to encourage critical thinking and decision-making skills through activities and healthy habits.

In this episode, we delve into the complex world of fostering civic responsibility. Our guest Tore Ellingsen explains how the interplay of regulation, personal sacrifice, and culture can build socially responsible societies or organisations. The conversation is rooted in the perspectives offered in Tore’s recent book, "Institutional and Organizational Economics: A Behavioral Game Theory Introduction," where he uses insights from behavioural game theory, psychology, and sociology to understand the dynamics of human interactions in groups.   Tore Ellingsen is Professor of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics, holding the Ragnar Söderberg Chair in Economics. His research interests span institutional, organisational, and behavioural economics, focusing on understanding the factors that contribute to the success or failure of human groups. Through his work, Tore seeks to answer pivotal questions regarding human cooperation and organisational effectiveness, providing valuable insights for both academia and real-world applications. For more information on Tore’s current research, you can check out his homepage.

In this episode, our guest Maarten Janssen helps us to explore the field of consumer (online) search. We discuss why economists are particularly interested in this topic and explore the reliability and dynamics of sponsored search results, uncovering the nuances and implications of these prevalent online phenomena. The insights from Maarten’s research (which he conducted together with Thomas Jungbauer, Marcel Preuss and Cole Williams on one paper and with Eeva Mauring on another paper) shed light on the complex interplay between consumer behaviour, search algorithms, and market dynamics.   Maarten Janssen is Professor of Microeconomics at the University of Vienna. In addition to his role at the University, he is a fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research, a member of the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities, a research associate at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW), and an academic affiliate at CEG Europe. Apart from consumer search, his research focusses on auctions and markets with asymmetric information. For more information about Maarten's work and to read his papers, visit his homepage here and check out his paper on sponsored search positions.