Archive Detail

Speaker:
Katrin Schmelz & Sam Bowles

This event is part of an event series „In_equality Colloquium“.

Katrin Schmelz (University of Konstanz) & Sam Bowles (Santa Fe Institute)

“Institutions Affect Preferences: Control Aversion Under Liberal and Authoritarian Regimes”

Title: Control Aversion Under Liberal and Authoritarian Regimes

Abstract: Do institutions affect preferences? Answers require going beyond lab experiments; but suitable natural experiments are rare. We exploit the post 1989 regime change in the former GDR to identify substantial effects of institutional change on an experimentally measured preference for autonomy, that is, control aversion. We also provide a model of the evolution of preferences suggesting the mechanisms that may have been at work.

Katrin Schmelz, psychologist and behavioural economist at the Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality" at the University of Konstanz and the Thurgau Economic Institute (TWI), is investigating the factors that influence decision-making during the pandemic. Her PhD dissertation in economics at the Max Planck Institute for Economics in Jena (first supervisor Simon Gächter) received the Heinz Sauermann Prize of the GfeW (German Association for Experimental Economic Research e.V.). Her further research interests include Culture, institutions and behavior; (intrinsic) motivation and incentives; public policy; experimental & behavioral economics and economic psychology. 

Samuel Bowles, (PhD, Economics, Harvard University) is Research Professor at the Santa Fe Institute where he heads the Behavioral Sciences Program. He taught economics at Harvard from 1965 to 1973 and since then at the University of Massachusetts, where he is now emeritus professor and at the University of Siena from 2002 to 2010 where he continues to occasionally teach.

Bowles' current research also includes theoretical and empirical studies of political hierarchy and wealth inequality and their evolution over the very long run. His studies on cultural and genetic evolution have challenged the conventional economic assumption that people are motivated entirely by self-interest. Recent papers have also explored how organizations, communities and nations could be better governed in light of the fact that altruistic and ethical motives are common in most populations.

Cluster members will receive participation information in time for the event. Guests are very welcome and receive information about the talk and a Zoom-link after registering here.