Urs Fischbacher

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Urs Fischbacher (born 17 September 1959 in Dietikon, Zürich) is a Swiss economist and professor of applied economic research at the University of Konstanz. He is director of the Thurgau Economic Institute, an affiliated institute of the University of Konstanz.[1] He pioneered the field of software tools for experimental economics.[2]

Biography

A native of

Experimental Economics
, among others. [5]

Research

Urs Fischbacher's research areas include

IDEAS/RePEc, he belongs to the 1% of most highly cited economists.[6]
Key findings of his research include:

  • Although a majority of subjects in the public goods game display conditional cooperation, about a third of subjects freeride completely, thus explaining why cooperation in public goods games tends to break down over time (with Simon Gächter and Ernst Fehr).[7]
  • The stylized facts observed in ultimatum, dictator, and public goods games as well as in the prisoner's dilemma can be explained by a theory of reciprocity wherein people reward kind actions and punish unkind ones depending on the actions' intentions (with Armin Falk).[8]
  • In ultimatum games, rejection rates for identical offers depend on what other offers are available to the proposer, implying that the utility of an action is affected by the alternatives to that action (with Falk and Fehr).[9]
  • The inclusion of social preferences, i.e. preferences that also care about the payoffs given to certain other agents, is necessary to understand the effects of competition and material incentives, cooperation and collective action, the optimality of contracts and property rights arrangements, and how social norms and market failures emerge (with Fehr).[10]
  • Voluntary cooperation in public goods games is fragile because many people want to contribute less than others, rather than because of changing beliefs regarding others' contributions or differences between people's preferences, and often eventually devolves into universal freeriding.[11]
  • Both agents' positive and negative reciprocal behaviour is affected by their beliefs about other agents' intentions to behave fairly (with Falk and Fehr).[12]
  • In experiments on cheating, 39% of participants were completely honest, while at most 22% lied completely. In some cases, people lied to their disadvantage, which is shown to be motivated by the desire to maintain a positive self-concept, e.g. regarding honesty and a lack of greediness (with Franziska Föllmi-Heusi).[13]
  • Theories of
    retaliation as a driving force behind informal sanctions (with Falk and Fehr).[14]

Awards and reception

Fischbacher is listed by Thomson Reuters in the "Highly Cited Researchers 2014" list as one of the world's most cited scientists.[15] In the FAZ economists 2014 Rankings, he finished second.[16] In December 2016, Fischbacher was awarded the Joachim Herz Research prize for "Best research work". The prize acknowledged his research on reciprocity in social exchange and the development of the z-Tree laboratory software.[17]

Selected publications

Journal articles

  • Urs Fischbacher;
    S2CID 4305295
    .
  • Urs Fischbacher (2007). "z-Tree: Zurich toolbox for ready-made economic experiments". Experimental Economics. 10 (2): 171–178.
    doi:10.1007/s10683-006-9159-4
    .

External links

References

  1. ^ Webpage of Urs Fischbacher at the University of Konstanz. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  2. PMID 27864814
    .
  3. ^ "Offizielle Webpräsenz von z-Tree". Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  4. ^ "Interview with Science Watch". Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  5. ^ Webpage of Urs Fischbacher on the website of the University of Konstanz (incl. CV). Retrieved February 17th, 2018.
  6. ^ Ranking of economists on IDEAS/RePEc. Retrieved February 17th, 2018.
  7. S2CID 15885836
    .
  8. S2CID 5714242
    .
  9. doi:10.1093/ei/41.1.20.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  10. S2CID 15380244
    .
  11. S2CID 8204954
    .
  12. hdl:20.500.11850/146605.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  13. doi:10.1111/jeea.12014
    .
  14. S2CID 13426232.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  15. ^ "Highly Cited Researchers 2014". Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  16. ^ "F.A.Z.:: Economist ranking in 2014". Faz.net. Retrieved February 17, 2018.
  17. ^ "Southwest Press, in 8 December 2016". Archived from the original on 23 December 2016. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
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