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Armin Falk

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Armin Falk
Born (1968-01-18) 18 January 1968 (age 56)
NationalityGerman
Academic career
FieldMicroeconomics
Behavioral economics
InstitutionUniversity of Bonn
Alma materUniversity of Cologne
University of Zurich
Doctoral
advisor		Ernst Fehr
AwardsYrjö Jahnsson Award (2011)
Leibniz Prize (2009)
Gossen Prize (2008)
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Armin Falk (born 18 January 1968) is a German economist. He has held a chair at the University of Bonn since 2003.

Biography

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Education and career

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Falk studied economics as well as philosophy and history at the University of Cologne. In 1998 he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of Zurich under the supervision of Ernst Fehr.

Falk is Professor of Economics and Director of the Behavior and Inequality Research Institute (briq),[1] as well as the Laboratory of Experimental Economics at the University of Bonn. He is external scientific member of the Max Planck Society (and as such a member of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods), program director at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), fellow of the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), fellow of the Center for Economic Studies (CESifo), Research Professor at the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), and member of the scientific council of the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. Furthermore, he is affiliated with the Institute for New Economic Thinking.

Accusations of sexual misconduct

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In October 2022, allegations arose that Falk had committed sexual abuse. In March 2023, Falk's employer briq stated in a public statement that an independent investigation did not confirm the allegations, and that Falk was fully rehabilitated from briq's perspective.[2] The University of Bonn concluded from the independent investigation and their own review of the matter that "there are no findings to substantiate the allegations made via social media" and that Falk "has been fully exonerated from the allegations made".[3] After the Deutsche Post Foundation, the sponsor, announced in 2023 its intention to merge the briq institute with the IZA, and IZA Director Simon Jäger subsequently announced his departure, Falk was slated to take over as the director of the combined institution. This sparked widespread opposition within the German and international economics community. In November 2023, hundreds of members of the IZA network demanded that Falk not be appointed as the institute's head; otherwise, they would collectively withdraw from the network.[4][5]

Research

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Falk's research interests include microeconomics, behavioral economics, and neuroeconomics. He has published in renowned journals like the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Econometrica, and Science. In the German Handelsblatt ranking of 2010, which analyzes current research output of economists in Germany, Austria, and German speaking Switzerland in terms of quality of publications since 2005, Falk reached the 8th place.

In a broad sense, Falk's research is about obtaining a better empirical foundation of economic behavior. While the traditional economic model of individual behavior postulates perfect rationality and egoism (homo oeconomicus), the work of Falk demonstrates that human behavior is better described by bounded rationality. In addition, Falk shows that social preferences such as fairness and trust are important determinants of behavior.

His research is highly interdisciplinary and builds on insights from experimental research, social psychology, genetics, and neuroscience. In terms of methods, Falk mainly uses experiments, both in the lab and in the field, complemented by neuroscientific methods, e.g., functional magnetic resonance imaging. An additional focus is the analysis of representative survey data.

The research of Falk can broadly be divided into two main areas, the analysis of economic preferences and psychological aspects of the labor market. A better understanding of preferences and personality is of great importance for economic and social science, as virtually every model in that area needs to make assumptions on individual behavior. A key focus has been the analysis of social preferences, as well risk and time preferences, but also personality. Supported by an ERC Starting Grant, Falk studies the distribution of preferences in the population as well as socioeconomic determinants of preferences.[6]

A second important focus of Falk's research has been the analysis of psychological aspects in labor markets (Behavioral Labor Economics). This line of research demonstrates that in particular in labor market contexts, motives such as social preferences, social comparison, trust, social approval, and intrinsic motivation play an important role. This has implications for work relations, as well as the functioning of organizations and labor markets.

Awards and honors

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Selected publications

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  • Falk, Armin; Szech, Nora (2014). "Fairness and motivation". IZA World of Labor. 9. doi:10.15185/izawol.9.
  • Falk, Armin; Szech, Nora (2013). "Morals and Markets". Science. 340 (6133): 707–711. Bibcode:2013Sci...340..707F. doi:10.1126/science.1231566. PMID 23661753. S2CID 12009853.
  • Falk, Armin; Heckman, James (2009). "Lab Experiments are a Major Source of Knowledge in the Social Sciences". Science. 326 (5952): 535–538. Bibcode:2009Sci...326..535F. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.321.5777. doi:10.1126/science.1168244. PMID 19900889. S2CID 27276085.
  • Falk, Armin; Kosfeld, Michael (2006). "The Hidden Costs of Control" (PDF). American Economic Review. 96 (5): 1611–1630. doi:10.1257/aer.96.5.1611..
  • Falk, Armin; Brown, Martin; Fehr, Ernst (2004). "Relational Contracts and the Nature of Market Interactions". Econometrica. 72 (3): 747–780. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.75.2331. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0262.2004.00511.x. S2CID 15230813..
  • Falk, Armin; Fehr, Ernst (1999). "Wage Rigidity in a Competitive Incomplete Contract Market". Journal of Political Economy. 107 (1): 106–134. doi:10.1086/250052. S2CID 151224626..

References

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  1. ^ "Strategic Restructuring of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)" (PDF). December 15, 2015. Retrieved February 18, 2016.
  2. ^ Press release briq-institute.org
  3. ^ "Statement". Universität Bonn. Retrieved 19 November 2023.
  4. ^ @cawley_john (November 14, 2023). "Over 435 economists have signed a letter protesting the appointment of Armin Falk to the leadership of @iza_bonn" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  5. ^ Saraiva, Catarina; Weber, Alexander. "Economists Oppose New IZA Head, Citing Allegations of Misconduct". Bloomberg.
  6. ^ Understanding Preferences: Measurement, Prevalence, Determinants and Consequence uni-bonn.de
  7. ^ "Congratulations to our 2021 Fellows". The Econometric Society. September 22, 2021. Retrieved 2021-10-29.
  8. ^ "European Economic Association". Yrjö Jahnsson Award Recipients.
  9. ^ "Fellows | EEA". www.eeassoc.org. Retrieved 2021-03-22.
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