Research

Research Priorities: Behavioral Economics, Neuroeconomics, Experimental Economics, Labour Economics

Armin Falk is a German behavioural economist. His research aims on a better empirical foundation of the economic behaviour model. This is important for basic research as well as from an economic and sociopolitical point of view.

His research is highly interdisciplinary and applies insights from experimental economic research, sociopsychology, genetics and neurosciences. His methods focus on field and laboratory experiments, complemented by mathematical models, methods of character genetics and functional magnetic resonance tomography.

Another research focus is the analysis of representative questionnaire data. Falk investigates economical preferences as well as psychological aspects of the labour market.

Photo: J Henry Fair

Career

• since 2016 Director of the Institute on Behavior and Inequality Research (briq), Bonn, Germany
• since 2016 Research Fellow, German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Berlin, Germany
• 2009-2016 Director of the Center for Economics and Neuroscience, University of Bonn, Germany
• since 2006 Research Professor, German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), Berlin, Germany
• since 2004 Director of the Bonn Laboratory for Experimental Economics, Germany
• since 2003 Professor of Economics at University of Bonn, Germany
• 2003-2007 Research Director, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), Bonn, Germany
• 2003-2005 Lecturer, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary
• 2003 Habilitation and Venia legendi at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
• since 2000 Fellow at the Institute for Economic Research (CESifo), Munich, Germany
• since 1999 Research Fellow in the Labour Economics Programme of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)
• 1999 Ph.D. in Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland
• 1998-2003 Assistant Professor, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics, University of Zurich, Switzerland
• 1994-1998 Doctoral studies, University of Zurich, Switzerland
• 1989-1994 Studies of Economics at the University of Cologne, “Diplom-Volkswirt”, Germany

Functions

• seit 2019 Associate Fellow, Economic Research on Identity, Norms and Narratives (ERINN)
• 2016 Mitglied des Auswahlkomitees, Staatspreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen
• 2014-2019 Associate Editor, Quarterly Journal of Economics
• since 2013 IP Leader, Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET)
• since 2009 External Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods
• 2009-2020 Member of the academic advisory council at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology
• since 2007 Program Director of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
• since 2006 Research Professor at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW)
• 2006 Mitglied des Auswahlkomitees, Deichmann-Förderpreis gegen Jugendarbeitslosigkeit

Projects

• 2008-2011 Collaborative research centres Transregio 15 “Governance und die Effizienz ökonomischer Systeme“

Honours and Memberships

• 2019 Research Grant of the Benckiser Stiftung Zukunft
• 2018 Research Grant of the Benckiser Stiftung Zukunft
• 2018 Felix Büchel Award, German Institute for Economic Research (DIW)
• 2017 Research Grant of the Benckiser Stiftung Zukunft
• 2015-2019 European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant
• 2015-2016 Research Grant of the Benckiser Stiftung Zukunft
• 2014 Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher
• 2014 „Impulsrede zur Sozialen Marktwirtschaft“, Prize of the „Wirtschaftspolitischer Club Deutschland e. V.”
• 2014-2019 Thomson Reuters Highly Cited Researcher
• 2013 SOEP Prize for the Best Scientific Publication (with Anke Becker, Thomas Deckers, Thomas Dohmen and Fabian Kosse)
• 2011 Award of the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BBAW)
• 2011 Yrjö Jahnsson Award in Economics of the Yrjö Jahnsson Foundation and the European Economic Association
• since 2010 European Academy of Sciences and Arts
• since 2009 German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina
• since 2009 North Rhine-Westphalia Academy for Sciences and Arts
• 2009 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award of the German Science Foundation (DFG)
• 2008 Hermann Heinrich Gossen Award, Verein für Socialpolitik
• 2008 European Research Council (ERC) Starting Independent Researcher Grants; Five-year grant
• 2008 Grant of the VolkswagenStiftung for workshop on “Behavioral labor economics”
• 2008 Post-doc grant of the Volkswagen Stiftung
• since 2007 Fellow of the European Economic Association
• 2006 John T. Dunlop Outstanding Scholar Award of the Labor and Employment Relations Association
• since 2004 DFG Project “Workfare or Welfare: Incentives and Acceptance“
• 2004 CESifo Prize in Public Economics: Distinguished CESifo Affiliate for the scientific originality, policy relevance and quality of the paper
• 2003 Research Grant by University of Zurich, Switzerland (Title: Determinants of Social Capital)
• 2002 Best lecturer of the economics department at the students’ election of the Faculty’s Professor of the Year 2002
• 1999 Winner of the Prize of the Institute for Empirical Research in Economics for the Best Publication of an Economist of Age Below 35
• 1994-1996 Research Grant “Involuntary Unemployment as an Equilibrium Phenomenon: Social Comparison Processes and Labour Market Dynamics”, financed by the Austrian Science Foundation
• 1990-1992 Member of the “Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes“ (German National Academic Foundation)