Research

Research Priorities: Behavioural Economics, Experimental Economics, Neuroeconomics, Fairness and Reciprocity

Ernst Fehr is an Austrian-Swiss economist and specialist in behavioural economics. He was able to show through extensive empirical studies that people are not as rational and self-serving as the standard model of the homo economicus assumes. His work contributed significantly to this fundamental change in economics.

Fairness, altruism, or the desire for compensatory justice: Phenomena like these that serve to humanize social interactions have until recently been almost completely ignored by economic theories. Ernst Fehr critiques the neoclassical dogma of the consistently rational behaviour of “homo economicus” who is exclusively driven by the principle of personal gain and utility maximization. Thereby, he affected a fundamental transformation that is today referred to as the “psychological shift in economics".

Fehr was able to demonstrate in numerous behavioural studies that humans are in no way only governed by the pursuit of material gains when acting as economic subjects but rather often try to attain a fair balance of interests even if it is to their disadvantage. He is intensely interested in the role that the principle of solidarity plays in economic decisions and in the cooperation of small groups. In addition to laboratory experiments, Fehr conducts controlled field studies. During tests with indigenous peoples from the Amazon basin and Papua New Guinea he explored the extent to which “fair” conduct or sanctions against anti-social contemporaries are culturally determined. To track down the evolutionary roots of cooperation and “pro-social behaviour”, he organized experiments with children and chimpanzees. His institute has its own brain scanner to investigate the neurobiological bases of human behaviour.

Ernst Fehr bridged the gap between such diverse disciplines as economics, sociology, psychology, biology, ethnology, and neuroscience. His insights into the basics of human social behaviour help explain why the real economy often acts different from the ways found in many economic textbooks. From his work, Ernst Fehr also derives practical recommendations for influencing human behaviour by both utilizing prohibitions or monetary incentives and more subtle psychological mechanisms.

In 2008, Ernst Fahr was the first economist to receive the Marcel Benoist Price that is often considered the “Swiss Nobel price”. Because of his continued presence in Zurich, the city became a centre of modern experimental economic research.

Career

• since 2012 Director, UBS International Center of Economics in Society, University of Zurich, Switzerland
• 2011-2020 Global Distinguished Professor for Economics, New York University, New York City, USA
• 2010-2015 Director, Department of Economics, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2010 Co-Founder, FehrAdvice & Partners AG, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2005-2012 Head, University Research Programme “Foundations of Human Social Behavior”, University Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2004-2009 Fellow, Collegium Helveticum, Zurich, Switzerland
• 2003-2011 Faculty Member, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, USA
• 2002-2006 External Faculty Member, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, USA
• 1999-2010 Director, Institute for Empirical Research in Economics at the University of Zurich, Switzerland
• since 1994 Full professor of Microeconomics and Experimental Economics,University of Zurich, Switzerland
• 1993-2006 Director, Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research in Economic Growth, Vienna, Austria
• 1991-1994 Professor, Institute of Economics and Economic Policy, Technische Universität (TU) Wien, Vienna, Austria
• 1991 Habilitation, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria
• 1988-1989 Research Fellow, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK
• 1986 Doctoral Degree, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria
• 1982-1991 Research Assistant, Institute of Economics and Economic Policy, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria
• 1980-1982 Research Assistant, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
• 1975-1980 Studies in Economics, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
• 1970-1975 Bundeshandelsakademie und Bundeshandelsschule Bregenz (BHAK Bregenz), Bregenz, Austria

Functions

• since 2017 Member, Advisory Bord, Experimental Economics
• since 2011 President, Board, Excellence Foundation Zurich for Economic and Social Research
• 2010-2019 Member, Senior Editorial Board, Science
• 2008 President, European Economic Association (EEA)
• 2006-2018 Member, Board of Reviewing Editors, Science
• 2006-2014 Member, Editorial Board, Quarterly Journal of Economics
• 2006-2011 Member, Editorial Board, Games and Economic Behavior
• 2003-2005 President, Economic Science Association (ESA)

Projects

• 2020-2025 Head, Project “Behavioral Economics of Preventive health Care Campaigns”, SNF Switzerland
• 2013-2016 Project “The Abandonment of Harmful Social Norms: Improving Children’s Rights with Evidence-Based Research”, UNICEF Switzerland
• 2013-2016 Project “Neuroeconomics of value-based decision making“, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNF)
• 2012-2018 Principal Investigator, Project “Foundations of Economic Preferences”, European Research Council (ERC)
• since 2012 Head, Project “The Distribution and Determinants of Social Preferences”, SNF, Switzerland
• 2010-2014 Head, Project “The Social Dynamics of Normative Behaviour: Population Fragmentation and Divergent Cultural Evolution”, SNF, Switzerland
• 2009-2013 Head, Project “Individual heterogeneity and social interaction”, SNF, Switzerland
• 2009-2012 Head, Project “Understanding Trust. Foundations, Forms and Limits of Trust", SNF, Switzerland
• 2008-2013 Head, Project “SystemsX, Neural Correlates of collective decision making: from molecules to minds”, SNF, Switzerland
• 2007-2010 Project Partner, Project “Moral Thinking and Religion, Research Grant “Explaining Religion (EXREL)”, European Commission
• 2006-2011 Head, Project “The Foundations of Human Prosociality – Social Preferences in Marmosets, Chimpanzees and Children”, SNF, Switzerland
• 2005-2013 Participant, Project “NCCR Affective Sciences”, SNF, Switzerland
• 2004-2006 Head, Project “The Effects of Loss Aversion and Social Preferences on Economic Incentives”, SNF, Switzerland
• 2004-2006 Head, Project “European Wages and Employment under Low Inflation”, SNF, Switzerland
• 2004-2007 RTN-Network “ENABLE: European Network for the Advancement of Behavioural Economics”, European Commission
• 2003-2004 Principal Investigator, Project “The Economics and Psychology of Incentives”
• 1998-2001 TMR Research Network “ENDEAR - European Network for the Development of Experimental Economics and its Application to Research on Institutions and Individual Decision Making”, European Union
• 1998-2001 Head, Project “Nominal Rigidity and Neutrality of Money”, SNF, Switzerland
• 1995-2005 Participant, Network on Economic Environments, MacArthur Foundation, Chicago, USA
• 1995-1998 Head, Project “The Effect of Social Norms on Wages and Employment. A Theoretical and Experimental Analysis”, SNF, Switzerland
• 1993-1996 Project, “Involuntary Unemployment as an Equilibrium Phenomenon”, Austrian Science Foundation FWF, Austria

Honours and Memberships

• 2020 Honorary Doctorate, Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• 2017 Oskar Morgenstern Medal, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
• 2017 Honorary Doctorate, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
• since 2016 Corresponding Member, Austrian Academy of Sciences, Austria
• 2016 Honorary Doctorate, Karl Franzens Universität Graz, Graz, Austria
• 2014 Gutenberg Research Award, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
• 2013 Gottlieb Duttweiler Prize, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI), Zurich, Switzerland
• 2012 Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Arts, Austria
• since 2011 OLB Foundation Fellowship, Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg – Institute for Advanced Study, Delmenhorst, Germany
• 2011 Science Prize, State of Vorarlberg, Austria
• 2010 German Fairness Prize, Fairness Foundation, Frankfurt, Germany
• 2010 Austrian Cross of Honor for Science and Art (I. Class), Austria
• 2010 Gustav Stolper Prize, Verein für Socialpolitik, Berlin, Germany
• since 2009 Fellow, Association for Psychological Science, Washington D.C., USA
• since 2009 Member, Academia Europaea
• 2009 Honorary Doctorate, Università della Svizzera italiana, Lugano, Switzerland
• 2009 Honorary Doctorate, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
• 2008 John Kenneth Galbraith Fellow, American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, USA
• since 2008 Member, Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, Germany
• since 2008 Fellow, Econometric Society, New Haven, USA
• 2008 Swiss National Science Award Marcel Benoist, Marcel Benoist Foundation, Bern, Switzerland
• 2008 Honorary Doctorate, University of Munich, Munich, Germany
• since 2007 Honorary Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, USA
• 2004 Cogito Prize, Cogito Foundation, Wollerau, Switzerland
• 2004 Honorary Doctorate, University of St. Gallen, St. Gallen, Switzerland
• since 2002 Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Germany
• 2000 Hicks-Tinbergen Medal, European Economic Association
• 1999 Gossen Prize, Verein für Socialpolitik, Berlin Germany