News

Bettina Rockenbach elected President of the Leopoldina

The economist from the University of Cologne and senior research fellow of the institute will be the first woman to head the German National Academy of Sciences. During her term of office, she will strive to increase the impact of academic discussions on policy and society and enhance cooperation with national and international partners. more

SEEDEC Conference 2025: Symposium on Economic Experiments in Developing Countries takes place in Bonn

The institute – namely Matthias Sutter’s research group on Experimental Economics – organizes the next Seedec Conference 2025 in Bonn with the Norwegian School of Economics. more

Christoph Engel receives lifetime award by the European Association of Law and Economics

At its annual conference in Torino, the European Association for Law and Economics has bestowed its lifetime award to Christoph Engel. more

New publication by C.C. von Weizsäcker: "Freedom and Adaptive Preferences"

Traditional welfare economics works with the assumption of the fully rational economic agent (homo economicus) whose preferences are fixed: that is, they are not influenced by their economic environment. To the contrary, Carl Christian von Weizsäcker presents a theory of welfare economics that maintains the principles of normative individualism while allowing for adaptive or changeable preferences. more

Forthcoming at Mohr Siebeck:<span><span><span> Öffentliches Recht als Verhaltensordnung </span></span></span> [<span><span>Public Law as a Behavioral System</span></span>]

Behavioral law has evolved from singular refinements within economic analysis into a theory of assumptions for the whole of jurisprudence. Making knowledge about individual behavior accessible to doctrine and regulatory practice requires digesting empirical literature for the purposes of the law. more

Wiley publishes the Korean edition of Matthias Sutter's latest book: „Behavioral Economics for Leaders: Research-Based Insights on the Weird, Irrational, and Wonderful Ways Humans Navigate the Workplace”

This book presents current insights from the field of behavioral economics to understand better the "human factor" in professional life and to enable successful cooperation. more

Wiley publishes the Chinese edition of Matthias Sutter's latest book: „Behavioral Economics for Leaders: Research-Based Insights on the Weird, Irrational, and Wonderful Ways Humans Navigate the Workplace”

This book presents current insights from the field of behavioral economics to understand better the "human factor" in professional life and to enable successful cooperation. more

"It is only through international cooperation that we can make progress"

In this joint interview, Anne Peters and Axel Ockenfels discuss legal and economic approaches to tackling the global climate crisis more

Johannes Haushofer and Co-authors Win the 2024 Frisch Medal

The Econometric Society announced that it has awarded the 2024 Frisch Medal to Dennis Egger, Johannes Haushofer, Edward Miguel, Paul Niehaus and Michael Walker for their paper, “General equilibrium effects of cash transfers: experimental evidence from Kenya” which was published in Econometrica in November 2022. more

<span><span>Christoph Engel Formally Inaugurated as a Member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences</span></span>

Following his appointment in June 2019, Christoph Engel has now been formally inaugurated as a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. more

WuW Award "Future of Competition" for Johannes Kruse<br /> 

A jury made up of members of the Wirtschaft und Wettbewerb (Competition Law and Economics) editorial and advisory board (including Prof. Daniel Zimmer, University of Bonn, and Prof. Andreas Heinemann, University of Zurich) has presented Johannes Kruse with the WuW Award "Future of Competition". more

Podcast with Pascal Langenbach: Can machines make fair decisions?

An artificial intelligence that checks university admissions, distributes refugees among municipalities or gives the go-ahead for police operations? Pascal Langenbach is researching how fair we think it is when machines make important decisions: more

<em>Wirtschaftswoche</em> Ranking of Economists 2023 (Germany, Austria, Switzerland)

In the latest ranking of economists in Wirtschaftswoche, researchers from our MPI perform excellently.
In the ranking of the strongest researchers under the age of 40, Christopher Roth is in 1st place.
In the ranking of the economists currently conducting the most research (2019-2023), Christoph Roth is in 7th place, Matthias Sutter in 27th place and Axel Ockenfels in 92nd place. In terms of lifetime achievement, Martin Hellwig is in 2nd place, Matthias Sutter in 36th place and Axel Ockenfels in 95th place. more

Add-on Fellowships for Interdisciplinary Economics for Sebastian Tonke and Sebastian Riedmiller

Sebastian Tonke and Sebastian Riedmiller have been awarded Add-on Fellowships for Interdisciplinary Economics by the Joachim Herz Stiftung. more

Marie Curie Fellowship for Dorothee Mischkowski

In cooperation with the University of Leiden (NL), Dorothee Mischkowski has received a postdoctoral fellowship within the EU’s Marie Curie program for her project “From low- to high-cost cooperation: Increasing costly cooperation behavior through internalized low-cost prosociality”. more

Axel Ockenfels Appointed New Director at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn<br /> 

Axel Ockenfels, professor at the University of Cologne, will become a new director at the MPI Collective Goods in Bonn in August 2023. He will establish a new department there, to be called "Economic Design & Behavior". Its aim will be to design market, incentive, and decision architectures, based on modern behavioral research. Prof. Dr. Ockenfels will thus complement the departments of Prof. Dr. Matthias Sutter and Prof. Dr. Christoph Engel at the institute, which focus on behavioral research from an economic and legal perspective. He will continue to teach and conduct research at the University of Cologne... more

Dan Nagin elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Dan Nagin, Fellow at the Institute, has just been elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the most prestigious badges of honor in US academia. The institute is proud of its fellow, and extends its warmest congratulations! more

The best economics and finance scientists in Germany

Matthias Sutter, Werner Güth and Martin Hellwig among the best scientists in the arena of Economics and Finance more

Matthias Sutter in an interview in the 3SAT program makro:  "Frauen vor – gleiche Leistung, gleiches Geld“

Matthias Sutter provides insights into the current state of research on this topic: women tend to avoid competitive situations on the job. However, when it comes to higher salaries, accepting and performing in competitive situations is often very crucial. more

Matthias Sutter publishes guest commentaries in the FAZ and in DER STANDARD on the recent ruling of the German Federal Labour Court on alleged discrimination against women in salary negotiations

"Is being successful at salary negotiations discrimination? A ruling by the German Federal Labour Court has some people up in arms: Without being asked, a company should have paid a woman as much as a man who bargained for more." more

Two publications in the <em>Journal of Legal Studies</em>

In the latest issue of the Journal of Legal Studies, two papers from researchers have been published who currently work at the institute, or who have written the paper while working at the institute. more

Portrait of Matthias Sutter

In his new book, Matthias Sutter, Director of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, presents current insights from the field of behavioural economics to better understand "human factor" in professional life and to enable successful cooperation. more

Wiley publishes the English edition of Matthias Sutter's latest book: „Behavioral Economics for Leaders: Research-Based Insights on the Weird, Irrational, and Wonderful Ways Humans Navigate the Workplace”

This book presents current insights from the field of behavioral economics to understand better the "human factor" in professional life and to enable successful cooperation. It provides a comprehensive perspective on the "big picture" by analyzing what makes people "tick," how they respond to incentives (monetary or non-monetary), and what that means for working together – or against each other – at work. more

Article by Frederike Zufall and her co-authors published in <em>Artificial Intelligence and Law</em>

To what extent can legal concepts and legal decision-making be transferred into mathematical models? Frederike Zufall and her co-authors Rampei Kimura and Linyu Peng have pursued this question for the legal concept of balancing interests. They developed two mathematical models to represent the decision of weighing two conflicting rights against each other. more

"Fighting Covid using call centers”

Information provision over the phone saves lives – A randomized controlled trial to contain COVID-19 in rural Bangladesh at the pandemic’s onset more

Article by Matthias Sutter and his co-authors is forthcoming in the<em> Quarterly Journal of Economics</em>

In a clustered randomized controlled trial in 20 large Turkish companies and over 3,000 headquarter employees, Matthias Sutter and his co-authors Sule Alan and Gözde Corekcioglu show how workplace climate can be improved and turnover be reduced. The training intervention improves in particular the leader-subordinate relationship. more

President’s and General Secretary’s Visit

On August 11, president elect, Prof. Patrick Cramer, and general secretary of the Max Planck Society, Dr. Simone Schwanitz, visited our institute. more

“The Human in Human Rights Law”

Christoph Engel held a Minerva Lecture at the MPI for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Heidelberg more

Article by Matthias Sutter and his co-authors is forthcoming in the <em>Journal of Political Economy</em>

In a large-scale experiment in rural Bangledesh Matthias Sutter and his co-authors Shyamal Chowdhury and Klaus F. Zimmermann find substantial intergenerational persistence of economic preferences. more

Article on Matthias Sutter's (et. al.) recent research is among the 10 most read texts on Bloomberg News

Bloomberg News: "They Failed a Trust Test, Then Chose Finance. Any Questions?"
A study by four business and economics professors based in Germany and Austria finds that those with low scores in a trust game are more likely to go to work in the financial sector. Does that matter? more

DFG Awards First Early-Career Prize to a German Lawyer after 20 Years

The German Research Foundation (DFG) just announced that senior research fellow Hanjo Hamann is among this year's recipients of the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz Prize, the most prestigious award for early career researchers in Germany. The Prize is awarded annually to researchers across all academic disciplines as an early distinction for successfully establishing an independent scientific career following a research doctorate. more

Matthias Sutter publishes new book: The human factor or what matters in professional life (in German)

This book presents current insights from the field of behavioral economics to understand better the "human factor" in professional life and to enable successful cooperation. It provides a comprehensive perspective on the "big picture" by analyzing what makes people "tick," how they respond to incentives (monetary or non-monetary), and what that means for working together – or against each other – at work. more

Matthias Heinz receives ERC Starting grant

Prof. Dr. Matthias Heinz, part-time member of our Experimental Economics Group, has received an ERC Starting grant, i.e., one of the most prestigious and highly-endowed research grants in Europe. In his ERC project „Managing People - How Employees’ Social Preferences Shape the Returns to Management Practices” Matthias Heinz analyzes the causal effects of management practices and studies to what extent employees’ social preferences shape the returns of the considered management practices. more

How can science read your mind?

How cool would it be if you could read minds? Only that's not really possible, is it? Social psychologist Rima-Maria Rahal explains how science might have a solution. more

Daniel Salicath has successfully defended his dissertation

Daniel Salicath joined the MPI for Research on Collective Goods in 2017 as a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Matthias Sutter and Prof. Bettina Rockenbach. more

Shambhavi Priyam has successfully defended her dissertation

Shambhavi Priyam joined the MPI for Research on Collective Goods in late 2017 as a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Matthias Sutter and Prof. Axel Ockenfels. more

The new podcast "Exzellent erklärt" interviews Pia Pinger and Matthias Sutter: "Educational opportunities - what role the parental home plays" (in German)

57 clusters of excellence, 1 podcast. On a regular basis, "Exzellent erklärt" reports from one of the research clusters that receive funding under the Excellence Strategy of the German federal and state governments. more

COVID-19 has a negative influence on prosocial behaviour

A Covid-19 infection in the family leads to a reduction in trust and in the willingness to cooperate in adolescents from socioeconomically weaker families more

Maj-Britt Sterba has successfully defended her dissertation

Maj-Britt joined the MPI for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena in January 2017 as a PhD student under the supervision of Prof. Oliver Kirchkamp and Prof. Christoph Engel, within the IMPRS Uncertainty. more

Cornelius Schneider has successfully defended his dissertation

Cornelius started his PhD studies at our institute within the joint program of the Max Planck Research School on Adapting Behavior in a Fundamentally Uncertain World (IMPRS Uncertainty) and the University of Cologne (Graduate School in Management, Economics and Social Sciences, CGS) in October 2016. more

Michael Seebauer and his co-authors receive the EAS Distinguished Publication Prize in Sociology 2021

The European Academy of Sociology (EAS) awards Michael Seebauer and his co-authors the 2021 EAS Prize for Best Article for their publication "The Role of Reciprocity in the Creation of Reputation." more

Rima-Maria Rahal receives funding from the Hans Sauer Foundation

Rima-Maria Rahal receives funding for the project “Good Together” from the Hans Sauer Foundation's special funding program "The Crisis as an Opportunity?”. more

Stefan Schmidt receives Reinhard Selten scholarship from GfeW

The "Gesellschaft für experimentelle Wirtschaftsforschung (GfeW)" awards Stefan Schmidt a Reinhard Selten scholarship in the amount of 1500 Euro for his research project "Flag to Wave: Status-Seeking Behavior in Groups". more

Handelsblatt publishes economists ranking 2021

In the ranking for lifetime achievement (individuals and institutions in and from the German-speaking world according to articles in scientific journals), Prof. Hellwig ranks second and Prof. Sutter 39th. more

Matthias Sutter at Campus Talks on ARD alpha

Matthias Sutter explains how the seemingly old-fashioned virtue of patience leads to success in life. more

Matthias Sutter in the 2021 FAZ Ranking of Top Economists

In this year's ranking of top economists, published by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Matthias Sutter is in 42nd place. more

What do 1200 euros a month change?

Podcast with Susann Fiedler (in German)
A basic income? Some say it's a social hammock, others say it's a solution to social problems. Susann Fiedler, head of the research group "Economic Cognition", and others are conducting the first ... more

Dan Nagin appointed as Max Planck Law Fellow

The Max Planck Institutes for the Study of Crime, Security and Law in Freiburg, and the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn proudly announce that, under the auspices of Max Planck Law, Professor Dan Nagin has been appointed as Fellow. more

National parochialism is widespread around the world

Study with respondents from 42 very different countries shows that fellow citizens are generally preferred more

<p>Matthias Sutter has been appointed as Associate Editor of Quantitative Economics from 1<sup>st</sup> July 2021 onwards</p>

Quantitative Economics is a journal of the Econometric Society, founded  to promote studies that aim at a unification of the theoretical-quantitative and empirical-quantitative approaches to economic problems. more

2021 Doctoral Award for Yoan Hermstrüwer

The University of Jena awards Yoan Hermstrüwer the PhD Prize 2021 for his thesis: "Engineering Games in the Public Interest - Essays in Experimental Law and Market Design". more

Coin toss influences outcome of penalty shootouts

The right to determine whether to go first or second in a penalty shoout improves the chances of winning more

Podcast on Cohesion with Anna Baumert (in German)

Cohesion is the glue of every life together. About civil courage, the group decisions of baboons and the cooperation of bacteria. more

Euro 2020: penalty shootouts can be won or lost on a coin toss

The online portal The Conversation reports on a recent study, conducted by Matthias Sutter and his co-authors asking whether it is the right to determine the sequence of moves in a penalty shootout rather than the actual sequence of moves that matters in order to win. more

Rima-Maria Rahal becomes a Fellow of the ‘Young ZiF’

Starting in the fall, Rima-Maria Rahal will be a member of the Young ZiF, a network of postdocs through which Bielefeld University's Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiF) promotes exchange between outstanding young scholars from different disciplines who have a special interest in interdisciplinary cooperation. more

<p>Randomized control trial on the effects of unconditional basic income (UBI)</p>

June 1st launched the nationwide first pilot project investigating the individual and social effects of a UBI (1,200.00 EUR/month) on recipients in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that will last for 3 years. more

Do we make better decisions as a team?

Podcast with Matthias Sutter (in German) more

Deliberate ignorance: choosing not to know

Intentionally foregoing information can be a good decision for both dividuals and society more

Harry Potter and Deliberate Ignorance in Welfare Economics

Deliberately ignoring information can sometimes lead to better decisions. This can also be the case in the relationship between the market and the state—that is, in whether the state should intervene in the economy to correct for a market failure, for example. Economist Felix Bierbrauer presents examples from welfare economics and considers the potential effects on fairness, freedom, and individual motivation. more

"Deliberate ignorance can be understood as a cultural skill"

We live in a knowledge society in which science and education is of particular importance. But under certain circumstances, we all benefit from deliberate ignorance. The Max Planck directors Ralph Hertwig and Christoph Engel explain why deliberately foregoing information in certain areas should even be prescribed and taught. more

Armin Steinbach joins HEC Paris as Professor

Armin Steinbach has accepted an offer to join HEC Paris as Full Professor from September 2021. more

Deliberate Ignorance: Choosing Not to Know

I do not want to see that! On first hearing, this may not seem wise. Even less should deliberately ignoring available information be praised by scientists: isn’t science about deepening knowledge? Yet people often shield themselves from information, for instance as they do not want to be scared, or biased. In a Strüngmann-Forum ... more

Hanjo Hamann is Rising Researcher of the Year 2020

Hanjo Hamann is the first legal scholar to receive the academics.de Junior Award and is named Rising Researcher of the Year 2020. This prize is awarded by the German University Association (Deutscher Hochschulverband) during the "Gala of German Science" for outstanding commitment to science and research. more

Sebastian O. Schneider was a guest on radioeins rbb

In the broadcast “Warum wir uns an Hygieneregeln halten oder nicht" ["Why we follow hygiene rules or not"] Sebastian O. Schneider was interviewed on the question why some people adhere to the measures to fight Covid-19, and how to help everyone follow these measures. more

Lukas Kiessling was a guest in the Campus Talks series on ARD alpha

Do performance comparisons make you sick in the long run? more

Lukas Kiessling received the Prize for the best PhD thesis in Economics of Education

Lukas Kiessling received the Prize for the best PhD thesis in Economics of Education completed in 2019/2020.   more

Postdoctoral Scholarship by Daimler and Benz Foundation awarded to Sebastian O. Schneider

In February 2020, Sebastian O. Schneider of the Experimental Economics group was awarded a scholarship by Daimler and Benz Foundation for his project proposal to investigate smartphone usage and its consequences among adolescents. more

Postdoctoral Scholarship by Daimler and Benz Foundation awarded to Stefanie Egidy

Stefanie Egidy has been awarded a competitive postdoctoral scholarship by the Daimler und Benz Stiftung for her work on "Strategic Litigation in a Democracy“. more

Jens Frankenreiter Associate Professor at WashU

The institute is proud to learn that one of its former senior research fellows, Jens Frankenreiter, after having been a fellow at Columbia University, will join one of the top 20 US law schools, Washington University in St. Louis, as an Associate Professor. more

Matthias Sutter was a guest on Radio Vorarlberg

Matthias Sutter gave a one-hour interview on Radio Vorarlberg: "How we become successful through patience". more

Don't feed the trolls - Hate on the net

One in five Internet users has already been the victim of hate speech. Can we do anything about hate comments? And what penalties do authors have to fear? In our new "Wissen Was" video, Fabian Winter and Frederike Zufall provide answers. more

<p>Launch of German Reproducibility Network: Foster trustworthiness and transparency in scientific research</p>

Eight key Open Science actors in Germany founded the German Reproducibility Network. This cross-disciplinary consortium is dedicated to promote reproducible and robust research on a national level. Two scientists of the MPI Collective Goods are representatives of one of the founding members. more

Interview with Matthias Sutter in "Live nach neun" on ARD

On January 25, Matthias Sutter was interviewed in the ARD program "Live nach neun" on the topic of patience. more

Matthias Sutter guest on Deutschlandfunk Kultur

Matthias Sutter will be a guest on Deutschlandfunk Kultur on December 19, 2020, 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. more

<p>Matthias Sutter in Conversation with Marc Elsberg</p>

Greed: Is Cooperation the Solution to All Economic Problems?
In his novel "Gier" ("Greed"), published in 2019, the Viennese author Marc Elsberg sketches the world in a further economic crisis. At a special summit in Berlin, people want to find solutions. A Nobel Prize winner who wants to give a groundbreaking speech at the summit dies in a traffic accident on his way to the conference venue. He had allegedly found a formula for "cooperation" that would bring prosperity to all. more

<p>Prof. Dr. Werner Güth receives Honorary Doctorate</p>

LUISS (Libera Università Internazionale degli Studi Sociali Guido Carli) in Rome awards Werner Güth the degree of Doctor honoris causa. The institute congratulates! more

3SAT documentary on social justice in <em>WissenHoch2</em>

3SAT broadcasted a documentary on social justice on 5th November, 20:15. Part of this documentary reported on an experiment in our laboratory designed by Ranveig Falch in collaboration with Alexander Cappelen and Bertil Tungodden from FAIR, NHH. more

<a href="internallink:178737">Anna Baumert </a>accepting DGPs award (German Psychological Society) on behalf of NOSI (Network of Open Science Initiatives)

The "Network of Open Science Initiatives" (NOSI) at psychological institutes in the German-speaking world has been awarded the "Förderpreis für Qualitätssicherung in der Psychologie" (Award for Quality Assurance in Psychology) by the German Psychological Society (DGP). more

<p>Niklas Cypris Presents at the <em>Digitale Woche</em></p>

On September 9th, 2020, Niklas Cypris gave a workshop on current research on online hate speech as part of the Germany-wide festival Digitale Woche. more

<p>Susann Fiedler to Conduct Long-Term Research on Unconditional Basic Income</p>

The first long-term study on unconditional basic income in Germany will begin in mid-August... more

Eugenio Verrina has successfully defended his dissertation

After completing his Bachelor and Master’s degrees in the Alpine city of Trento, Eugenio started his PhD in economics at the MPI for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn and the University of Cologne in September 2016 under the supervision of Prof. Bettina Rockenbach and Prof. Christoph Engel, within the program of the International Max Planck Research School on Adapting Behavior in a Fundamentally Uncertain World (IMPRS Uncertainty). more

<p>Interview with Matthias Sutter on ZDF online: „Fairness – der schlummernde Wirtschaftsfaktor“ ("Fairness – the dormant economic factor")</p>

The Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods wanted to find out whether or not dismissals are comprehensible to employees, and what role this plays. more

Pascal Langenbach elected to the Junge Akademie at the BBAW & the Leopoldina

  Pascal Langenbach has been elected to the Junge Akademie at the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities and at the National Academy of the Sciences Leopoldina.   more

Anna Baumert awarded for her Outstanding Contribution to European Social and Personality Psychology (EASP/EAPP)

Anna Baumert was selected as the 2020 Winner of the joint award of the European Association of Social Psychology (EASP) and EAPP for Outstanding Contribution to European Social and Personality Psychology. more

Leonard Hoeft is awarded the Otto Hahn Medal for the year 2020 by the Max Planck Society

Every year, the Max Planck Society awards a selection of junior scientists the Otto Hahn Medal for their outstanding scientific achievements. more

Matthias Sutter was guest in the TV broadcast "makro" on 3sat

TV station 3sat reported on the current job market in its broadcast "makro": "Value of labor". more

The German Research Foundation (DFG) establishes 14 new priority programs for 2021

The German Research Foundation (DFG) has approved the application for a priority program called "META-REP: A meta-scientific program to analyze and optimize replicability in the behavioral, social, and cognitive sciences". more

Sebastian Tonke receives Young Researcher Award

Sebastian Tonke receives the Young Researcher Award for the best dissertation with respect to policy relevant research in developing countries. more

Matthias Sutter on Patience in Times of Corona

Bavarian radio and TV (Bayerischer Rundfunk) is currently presenting a series of video talks about the Corona pandemic on its homepage, entitled "Was ich noch zu Corona sagen wollte". Matthias Sutter has taken part in that series by giving a brief talk about patience in times of Corona. more