Daniel J. Zizzo

Laurea (1994), University of Palermo.

M.A. (2003), University of Oxford.

M.Phil. (1997), University of Oxford.

D.Phil. (2000), University of Oxford.

Occupation: Professor of Economics, School of Economics, University of East Anglia. My primary administrative role in the School is as Head of School. I am a Research Associate in the Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis (CAMA) at Australian National University and a member of the UEA Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS), of the ESRC Centre for Competition Policy (CCP), of the UTS Paul Woolley Centre for Capital Market Dysfunctionality and of the CASS Behavioural Finance Working Group. I am also a Coordinating Editor of Theory and Decision.

Research Interests: I am primarily an experimental and behavioral economist. Much (though not all) of my research is motivated by the search for more realistic empirical and theoretical foundations of economic decision-making, using mainly experimental, but also analytical and computational, methods as required. Current research interests include bounded rationality, models of expectation formation and behavioral macroeconomics, behavioral and cognitive game theory, cooperation, trust, social desirability and social preferences, and the methodology of experimental economics. They more generally include macroeconomic and microeconomic applications of theoretical ideas. I consider myself a mainstream economist, but one interested in pushing forward the boundaries of mainstream economics.

Mail Address: School of Economics, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, United Kingdom.

In what follows you can find out about my publications, unpublished preprints, refereeing activity, teaching (including my inaugural lecture) and administrative experience. There is also some information for people that want to know more about experimental research, a tribute to my late mentor, Michael Bacharach, and information on a special issue and book on "Transfer of Knowledge in Economic Decision-Making". I have received external funding from the Bank of England, the British Academy, the ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation, the OECD and the University of Technology Sydney. For the comprehensive European Economic Association ranking of economics journals, see here; alternative recent rankings which take into account a more global impact of journals but is less complete for interdisciplinary journals can be found in “New Approaches to Ranking Economics Journals” by Yolanda K. Kodrzycki and Pingkang David Yua; a UK Research Assessment Exercise targeted list is the Keele ranking of 442 economics journals. A 2008 ranking (rather not discriminating at the top) is the Australian Business Deans Council list; the UK list most commonly used by business schools (if somewhat selective, and odd in places, in terms of Economics journals – as the perspective is not one of Economics departments -) is the ABS ranking. In the ‘hard’ sciences the standard way of ranking journals is by using the crude impact factor, defined as the number of times the papers published in the journal are cited divided by the sum of papers published by the journal (in the preceding two years); Physica A had a 2008 impact factor of 1.441 (vs., for example, 3.865 for Econometrica, 1.333 for Games and Economic Behavior, 1.278 for the Journal of Public Economics, 0.943 for the Journal of Economic Psychology and 0.705 for the Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics). The crude impact factor does have specific limitations that can be dealt with suitable weightings, as discussed for example in Kalaitzidakis et al.. That being said, any ranking of economics journals of course suffers from a number of general limitations, many of which are well summarized in Hodgson and Rothman, and more technical ones are discussed in Wall. For other information, see here and my university webpage, though note that this page is updated more frequently than my university webpage.

 

Publications

  1. "Experimenter Demand Effects in Economic Experiments", Experimental Economics, forthcoming. Old version available as Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, July 2008. 

  2. S. Sitzia and D.J. Zizzo, "Does Product Complexity Matter for Competition in Experimental Retail Markets?", Theory and Decision, forthcoming. Old version available as Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, November 2008. Slightly updated version available as a University of East Anglia ESRC Centre for Competition Policy Working Paper 08-33, December 2008.

  3. Y. Breitmoser, J.H.W. Tan and D.J. Zizzo, "Understanding Perpetual R&D Races", Economic Theory, forthcoming. Earlier edition available as University of Nottingham CeDEx Discussion Paper 2008-04 and also available as University of East Anglia ESRC Centre for Competition Policy Working Paper 08-22, March 2008; corresponding electronic appendices.

  4. D.J. Zizzo and J.H.W. Tan, "Game Harmony: A Behavioral Approach to Predicting Cooperation in Games", American Behavioral Scientist, forthcoming. Old version available as Nottingham University Business School Research Paper No. 2009-10, April 2009.

  5. M. Perugini, J.H.W. Tan and D.J. Zizzo, "Which is the More Predictable Gender? Public Good Contribution and Personality", Economic Issues, forthcoming. Most recent version (November 2008).

  6. G.D. Menzies and D.J. Zizzo, "Inferential Expectations", B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics 9(1) (Advances), Article 42. Abstract. Formally January 2009, but accepted September 2009 and published December 2009.

  7. S.P. Hargreaves Heap and D.J. Zizzo, "The Value of Groups", American Economic Review 99(1), March 2009, pp. 295–323. Most recent version with electronic appendices (January 2008).

  8. D. Sgroi and D.J. Zizzo, "Learning to Play 3x3 Games: Neural Networks as Bounded-Rational Players", Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 69(1), January 2009, pp. 27-38. Most recent version and accompanying technical appendix (December 2007).

  9. "Anger and Economic Rationality", Journal of Economic Methodology 15(2), June 2008, pp. 147-167. Old version available here.

  10. J.H.W. Tan and D.J. Zizzo, "Groups, Cooperation and Conflict in Games", Journal of Socio-Economics 37(1), February 2008, pp. 1-17.

  11. "The Cognitive and Behavioral Economics of Envy", in R.H. Smith (ed.), "Envy: Theory and Research", Oxford University Press (Affective Science Series), 2008, pp. 190-210. An old version can be found here as a Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, May 2007. This working paper is discussed in a Forbes October 2007 article on ‘America’s most jealous cities’, and more generally some of my views on envy are reported in a New Scientist article on ‘Are humans cruel to be kind?’, dated May 13, 2009.

  12. M. Bacharach, G. Guerra and D.J. Zizzo, "The Self-Fulfilling Property of Trust: An Experimental Study", Theory and Decision 63(4), December 2007, pp. 349-388. Old version available here. Experimental Instructions and Raw Data.

  13. D.J. Zizzo and J.H.W. Tan, "Perceived Harmony, Similarity and Cooperation in 2 x 2 Games: An Experimental Study", Journal of Economic Psychology 28(3), June 2007, pp. 365-386. Old version available here. Experimental Instructions.

  14. D. Sgroi and D.J. Zizzo, "Neural Networks and Bounded Rationality", Physica A 375(2), 1 March 2007, pp. 717-725.

  15. W. Dutton, G.A. Guerra, D.J. Zizzo and M. Peltu, "The Cyber Trust Tension in E-Government: Balancing Identity, Privacy, Security", Information Polity 10(1-2), December 2005, pp. 13-23.

  16. "Transfer of Knowledge and the Similarity Function in Economic Decision-Making", in D.J. Zizzo (ed.), "Transfer of Knowledge in Economic Decision-Making", Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 1-27.

  17. "Simple and Compound Lotteries: Experimental Evidence and Neural Network Modelling",  in D.J. Zizzo (ed.), "Transfer of Knowledge in Economic Decision-Making", Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, pp. 166-193. Two computer displays from the experiment are shown here. The old version of the paper can be found here as Oxford University Department of Economics Discussion Paper n. 57, January 2001.

  18. "The Neuroeconomics of Anger", Homo Oeconomicus 21(3/4), December 2004, pp. 495-508.

  19. G. Guerra and D.J. Zizzo, "Trust Responsiveness and Beliefs", Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 55(1), September 2004, pp. 25-30. The more extended discussion paper version can be found here.

  20. "Inequality and Procedural Fairness in a Money Burning and Stealing Experiment", in F.A. Cowell (ed.), Research on Economic Inequality, volume 11, Elsevier, 2004. The discussion paper version can be found here as Oxford University Department of Economics Discussion Paper n. 155, April 2003. A Daily Telegraph blog refers to this work.

  21. "Money Burning and Rank Egalitarianism with Random Dictators", Economics Letters 81(2), November 2003, pp. 263-266.

  22. "Empirical Evidence on Interdependent Preferences: Nature or Nurture?", Cambridge Journal of Economics 27(6), November 2003, pp. 867-880.

  23. "Transfer of Knowledge in Economic Decision-Making: An Overview", Greek Economic Review 22(2), Summer 2003, pp. 1-10.

  24. "Verbal and Behavioral Learning in a Probability Compounding Task", Theory and Decision 54(4), June 2003, pp. 287-314.

  25. S. Stolarz-Fantino, E. Fantino, D.J. Zizzo and J. Wen, "The Conjunction Fallacy: New Evidence for Robustness", American Journal of Psychology 116(1), Spring 2003, pp. 15-34.

  26. "Neurobiological Measurements of Cardinal Utility: Hedonimeters or Learning Algorithms?", Social Choice and Welfare 19(3), July 2002, pp. 477-488. 

  27. "Racing with Uncertainty: A Patent Race Experiment", International Journal of Industrial Organization 20(6), June 2002, pp. 877-902.

  28. "Between Utility and Cognition: The Neurobiology of Relative Position", Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 48(1), May 2002, pp. 71-91.

  29. D.J. Zizzo and A.J. Oswald, "Are People Willing to Pay to Reduce Others’ Incomes?", Annales d’Economie et de Statistique 63-64, July-December 2001, pp. 39-62. A draft can be found here. Reviewed by The Economist, 16 February 2002 issue - and appeared in a few other places around the same time, including The Guardian, De Spiegel and the Oxford student journal Cherwell! Most recently, it has been referred to in the December 26, 2008, issue of the New York Times to explain ‘why we are still happy’ notwithstanding the recession.

  30. "Situational Determinants of Risk-Taking Behavior in a Lottery Race Game", Greek Economic Review 21(1), Spring 2001, pp. 37-51.

  31. D.J. Zizzo, S. Stolarz-Fantino, J. Wen and E. Fantino, "A Violation of the Monotonicity Axiom: Experimental Evidence on the Conjunction Fallacy", Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 41(3), March 2000, pp. 263-276.

  32. "Hate as a Preference, Commodity, Emotion or Thought", Economic Issues, forthcoming. Book review on S. Cameron (2009), The Economics of Hate, Cheltenham: Edward Elgar.

  33. G.D. Menzies and D.J. Zizzo, "Rational Expectations", in W. Darity Jr. (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Edition, Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. 3, January 2008, pp. 51-53. A June 2006 variant on this entry can be found on the Social Science Research Network.

  34. "Endogenous Preferences", in W. Darity Jr. (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Edition, Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. 2, January 2008, pp. 586-587. An October 2005 variant on this entry can be found on the Social Science Research Network.

  35. "Interdependent Preferences", in W. Darity Jr. (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2nd Edition, Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, vol. 6, January 2008, pp. 437-438. An October 2005 variant on this entry can be found on the Social Science Research Network.

  36. "The Indeterminacy of the Beliefs, Preferences and Constraints Framework", commentary to H. Gintis, "A Framework for the Unification of the Behavioral Sciences", Behavioral and Brain Sciences 30, February 2007, pp. 44-45.

  37. "Economic Man: Self-Interest and Rational Choice", commentary to J. Henrich, R. Boyd, S. Bowles, C. Camerer, E. Fehr, H. Gintis, R. McElreath, M. Alvard, A. Barr, J. Ensminger, N.S. Henrich, K. Hill, F. Gil-White, M. Gurven, F.W. Marlowe, J.Q. Patton and D. Tracer, "'Economic Man' in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies", Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28, December 2005, pp. 837-838.

  38. "Serotonin, Dopamine and Cooperation", commentary to R.A. Depue and J.V. Morrone-Strupinsky, “A Neurobehavioral Model of Affiliative Bonding: Implications for Conceptualizing a Human Trait of Affiliation”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28, June 2005, p. 370.

  39. "Introspection and Intuition in the Decision Sciences", commentary to S. Roberts, "Self-Experimentation as a Source of New Ideas", Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27, April 2004, pp. 274-275.

  40. "From Reinforcement of Acts to Reinforcement of Social Preferences", commentary to H. Rachlin, "Altruism and Selfishness", Behavioral and Brain Sciences 25, April 2002, pp. 282-283.

  41. "Individual Psychology, Market Scaffolding and Behavioral Tests", commentary to R. Hertwig and A. Ortmann, "Experimental Practices in Economics: Lessons for Psychologists", Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24, June 2001, pp. 432-433.

  42. "Implicit Learning of (Boundedly) Rational Behaviour", commentary to K.E. Stanovich and R.F. West, "Individual Differences in Reasoning: Implications for the Rationality Debate", Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23, October 2000, pp. 700-701.

  43. Book Review of "Neural Networks: An Introductory Guide for Social Scientists" by G.D. Garson, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 4(3), electronic journal, June 2001.

  44. "If Interdependent Preferences May Depend on Cognition", in M.W. Evens (ed.), Proceedings of the Ninth Midwest Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science Conference, Menlo Park (Ca.): AAAI Press, 1998, pp. 58-65.

  45. "Relativity-Sensitive Preferences, Chameleons and Fair Wages", RISEC: International Review of Economics and Business 45, 1998, pp. 463-498. The journal is now known as International Review of Economics, published by Springer.

  46. "Why Do We Accept Money? An Economic Analysis", International Review of Economics and Business (Rivista Internazionale di Scienze Economiche e Commerciali) 42, 1995, pp. 769-792. The journal is now known as International Review of Economics, published by Springer.

  47. "Economia Sperimentale e Natura della Moneta" ("Experimental Economics and the Nature of Money"), Economia, Società e Istituzioni 7, 1995, pp. 73-87.

Edited Book

"Transfer of Knowledge in Economic Decision-Making" (edited book), Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

PROGRAM

Unpublished and Archived Preprints

  1. T. Henckel, G.D. Menzies and D.J. Zizzo, "Threshold Pricing in a Noisy World", Australian National University Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis Discussion Paper n. 1, January 2010.

  2. S.P. Hargreaves Heap, A. Verschoor and D.J. Zizzo, "A Test of the Experimental Method", University of East Anglia Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science Working Paper 09-17, December 2009.

  3. B. Lyons, G.D. Menzies and D.J. Zizzo, "Professional Interpretation of the Standard of Proof: An Experimental Test on Merger Regulation", University of East Anglia Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science Working Paper 09-16, December 2009.

  4. P. Fleming and D.J. Zizzo, "Social Desirability, Approval and Public Good Contribution", Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, December 2009. Also available as University of East Anglia Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science Working Paper 09-11, December 2009. Warning for the unwary: this is a paper tailored for a psychology journal. Experimental instructions.

  5. G.D. Menzies and D.J. Zizzo, "Uncertainty, Choices and Prices in a Market for Lotteries", Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, September 2009. This is mostly overlapping with our October 2008 discussion paper, but employs a different angle and the overlap is not complete. Electronic appendices.

  6. S.P. Hargreaves Heap, A. Verschoor and D.J. Zizzo, "Out-Group Favouritism", Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, July 2009.

  7. S.P. Hargreaves Heap, J.H.W. Tan and D.J. Zizzo, "Trust, Inequality and the Market", Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, April 2009.

  8. G.D. Menzies and D.J. Zizzo, "News and Expectations in Financial Markets: An Experimental Study", Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, October 2008. Also available as an Australian National University Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis Discussion Paper n. 34, October 2008. Most recent version (December 2009) and corresponding electronic appendices.

  9. G.D. Menzies and D.J. Zizzo, "Do Only Economists Rely on Statistical Significance?", Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, August 2008. Experimental instructions. For more details on this experiment, see Menzies and Zizzo (2005) below.

  10. Y. Breitmoser, J.H.W. Tan and D.J. Zizzo, "The Enthusiastic Few, Peer Effects and Entrapping Bandwagons", Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, March 2007.

  11. G.D. Menzies and D.J. Zizzo, "Exchange Rate Markets and Conservative Inferential Expectations", Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, December 2006. Also available as Australian National University Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis Discussion Paper n. 2, January 2007.

  12. Y. Breitmoser, J.H.W. Tan and D.J. Zizzo, "A Test of Perpetual R&D Races", University of East Anglia ESRC Centre for Competition Policy Working Paper 06-11, July 2006.

  13. G.D. Menzies and D.J. Zizzo, "Inferential Expectations", Australian National University Centre for Applied Macroeconomic Analysis Discussion Paper n. 12, June 2005. Also available as University of Technology Sydney Quantitative Finance Research Paper n. 159, May 2005. Electronic appendices. This paper contains the basic model presented in our B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics paper, but also contains experimental evidence. It is a very different paper from the 2004 discussion paper referred to below. 

  14. "Cooperation and Harmony in Finite Games", Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, May 2005.

  15. "You Are Not in My Boat: Common Fate and Discrimination Against Outgroup Members", Social Science Research Network Discussion Paper, January 2005. This is a sized-down version. For the extended version, please the Oxford University 2003 discussion paper listed below.

  16. "Positive Harmony Transformations and Equilibrium Selection in Two-Player Games", Oxford University Department of Economics Discussion Paper n. 197,  July 2004.

  17. G.D. Menzies and D.J. Zizzo, "Inferential Expectations", Oxford University Department of Economics Discussion Paper n. 187,  March 2004. Note that this is a substantively different paper from the Contributions to Macroeconomics paper with the same name.  Web appendix.

  18. "Anger, Rationality and Neuroeconomics", Oxford University Department of Economics Discussion Paper n. 182, December 2003.

  19. "You Are Not in My Boat: Common Fate and Similarity Attractors in Bargaining Settings", Oxford University Department of Economics Discussion Paper n. 167, July 2003. February 2006 (Short) Version. Experimental Instructions.

  20. G. Guerra, D.J. Zizzo, W. Dutton and M. Peltu, "Economics of Trust in the Information Economy: Issues of Identity, Privacy and Security", Oxford Internet Institute Research Report n. 1, April 2003. Report prepared for the OECD.

  21. D.J. Zizzo and J.H.W. Tan, "Game Harmony as a Predictor of Cooperation in 2 x 2 Games", Oxford University Department of Economics Discussion Paper n. 151, March 2003. Revised version of Discussion Paper n. 117, September 2002 (the old version may still be of independent interest).

  22. "Harmony of Games in Normal Form", Oxford University Department of Economics Discussion Paper n. 150, March 2003. Revised version of Discussion Paper n. 116, September 2002.

  23. "Preliminary Experimental Results on the Similarity Function in 2 x 2 and 3 x3 Games", Cogprints Electronic Archive, March 2003.

  24. "Fear the Evil Eye", Oxford University Department of Economics Discussion Paper n. 91, March 2002.

  25. "Game Harmony: A Short Note", Cogprints Electronic Archive, March 2001.

  26. D.J. Zizzo and D. Sgroi, "Bounded-Rational Behavior by Neural Networks in Normal Form Games", Nuffield College Oxford Economics Discussion Paper No. 2000-W30, November 2000.

  27. "Money Burning and Stealing in the Laboratory: How Conflicting Ideologies Emerge", Oxford University Department of Economics Working Paper n. 40, October 2000.

PROGRAM

Refereeing Activity

Refereeing Within Economics:  American Economic Review (7), Blackwell Publishing, British Academy, Cambridge Journal of Economics, Econometrica (3), UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (6),  Economic Inquiry, Economic Journal (2), Economics and Philosophy, Experimental Economics (2), Games and Economic Behavior, Greek Economic Review, Homo Oeconomicus, Information Economics and Policy, International Journal of Game Theory, International Journal of Industrial Organization (3), International Review of Law and Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (5), Journal of Economic Psychology (4), Journal of Economics (3), Leverhulme Trust, US National Science Foundation (NSF), Nuffield Foundation (2), UK Office of Science and Technology (OST), Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Oxford Economic Papers (3), Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Routledge (2), Southern Economic Journal, Theory and Decision.

Refereeing Outside Economics: American Political Science Review, Behavioral and Brain Sciences (2), Cognitive Science (2), UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), Elsevier, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation (3), Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Leverhulme Trust, Mind and Society (2), Political Studies, Psychological Bulletin, Psychological Review (5), Psychological Science, Rationality and Society, U.S.-Israel Binational Science Foundation and the 23rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society.

PROGRAM

Teaching done at UEA

Principles of Macroeconomics (2nd year Macroeconomics course)

Experimental Economics I and II (graduate teaching)

Economic Concepts (Macroeconomics for applied and training MA students)

Topics in Economic Analysis (advanced undergraduate Microeconomics and Macroeconomics)

Teaching I did in my last two years in Oxford

Introductory and Intermediate Economics: for Christ Church College

Money and Banking: for Christ Church and other colleges

Statistical Methods for the Social Sciences: for Christ Church and other colleges

Organisation of Production (revision): for Christ Church

Individual Choice (lectures) for the University

Introduction to Macroeconomics (lectures) for the University

Research in Experimental Economics (lecture) for the University

Inaugural Lecture

Following my promotion to a Chair in August 2007, I gave my inaugural lecture on “An Economist Glimpses the Dark Side of Human Nature” on March 10, 2009.

PROGRAM

Administrative experience (in brief)

UEA (since August 2008). I have been Head of the School of Economics since August 2008 (and an Exec member of CBESS since September 2010). As Head of School, I have also been a member of the Social Science Faculty Executive advising the Dean of Faculty on Faculty strategy. The vision I am implementing for the School is one of managed, sustainable, quality-led growth, based on an understanding of incentives and on income growth. The School is expected to expand by at least 5 new Faculty members this year and to expand beyond 20 members for the first time.

From the viewpoint of research, the goal is to raise the game of Economics at UEA and its preparedness for the Research Excellence Framework 2012/13. Some ingredients to this are a workload allocation model carefully protecting research time and aiming to reduce teaching loads for research active staff, while employing and empowering teaching only staff; a strengthening and increased transparency of the research support provided by the School; a personnel framework which, taking the lead from the University, is aimed to raise expectations of what is required both of new appointments and existing staff; and strategic thinking about research clusters and impact, among others.

From the viewpoint of student experience, increased focus is being paid on student support, academic engagement, contact hours and student related initiatives, with the aim of making the student experience at UEA one that both best equips students for the job market and one that they enjoy and where they feel special. Our degrees are in increasing demand and our admissions standards are on the rise as a result; and a new flagship BSc in Economics and Economic Psychology degree is being launched from September 2010 to build on UEA's international reputation in experimental and behavioural economics.

UEA (until July 2008). My main role at UEA until July 2008 has been Admissions Director (with special responsibility for postgraduate admissions, in relation to both taught and research degrees, and overall direction also of undergraduate admissions). As Admissions Director I was involved in a number of duties, including among others conceiving, promoting and specifying a new MA degree (the MA in International Business Finance and Economics), specifying two new INTO degrees, and generally providing a leading role in determining the School’s admissions strategy in all its facets, such as for example admissions thresholds, scholarships portfolios and marketing initiatives. Some of my initiatives, for example in the fields of virtual open days and of scholarships, provided the lead for initiatives elsewhere in the University. As Admissions Director, I was in the School decision making Exec defining the School strategy (made up by the Head of School and the Admissions, Research and Teaching Directors).

I was involved in a large number of working parties concerning teaching at virtually all levels from 1st year undergraduate to postgraduate level, was in charge of an Annual Teaching Review at the postgraduate level, and was conducive in 2006 in promoting a Medium Term Strategy for the School of Economics. I have been a member of the School’s Promotions Committee since 2005, and have also been a member of various selection panels in the University at different points in time.

Oxford. In Oxford (where I was until August 2004), as Acting Director of BREB (Bounded Rationality in Economic Behaviour unit) and experimental laboratory coordinator, I had experience managing a research unit, convening a research workshop (and a conference) and coordinating the use of resources. As I was responsible for Economics teaching in Christ Church College, and had the role of senior subject tutor for the Economics and Management degree, I also played my part organising teaching, providing pastoral support and taking an active administrative role in the life of the college.

PROGRAM

In Memoriam

Michael Bacharach, my Oxford teacher, collaborator and friend, died on August 12, 2002. A memorial service took place on November 9, 2002, at 2.30 PM in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Obituaries appeared in the Times (August 29), the Independent (September 9), the Guardian (September 17), the Italian newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore (October 6) and the Winter 2002 issue of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy.

PROGRAM

 Interested in Experimental Research?

For those who are thinking about experimental research but know little, here are some general and introductory books on methods (m) and substantive topics (t).

·  J. Kagel and A. Roth (1995), Handbook of Experimental Economics, Princeton U.P. (t)

·  C.F. Camerer (2003), Behavioral Game Theory: Experiments in Strategic Interaction, Princeton U.P. (t)

·  C.A. Holt (2007), Markets, Games, & Strategic Behavior, Pearson. (t)

·  F. Bolle and M. Lehmann-Waffenschmidt (2002), Surveys in Experimental Economics: Bargaining, Cooperation and Election Stock Markets, Springer-Verlag. (t)

·  D. Friedman and S. Sunder (1994), Experimental Methods: A Primer for Economists, Cambridge U.P. (mt)

·  D. Davis and C. Holt (1993), Experimental Economics, Princeton U.P. (mt)

·  B. Sommer and R. Sommer (1991), A Practical Guide to Behavioral Research, Oxford U.P. (m)

Two good websites to start from:
Alvin Roth’s experimental economics webpage
Center for Experimental Business Research's guide to experimental resources on the web, at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

If you are interested in field experiments, John List’s field experiments webpage contains a very useful database of examples.

PROGRAM

Book (Palgrave Macmillan) on Transfer of Knowledge in Economic Decision-Making

            The book has been published in 2005. Most of its content was previously published as volume 22, no. 2 (Summer 2003), of the Greek Economic Review.

Contents

Paper 1: ‘Transfer of Knowledge: An Overview.’ By Daniel J. Zizzo (Christ Church College, Oxford). (This is a short introduction to the GER special issue).

Chapter 1: ‘Transfer of Knowledge and the Similarity Function in Economic Decision-Making’. (This is an extensive review paper that will appear only in the Palgrave Macmilan book).

Paper/Chapter 2: ‘Types of Context and their Effects on Transfer.’ By Edmund Fantino and Stephanie Stolarz-Fantino (University of California, San Diego).

Paper/Chapter 3: ‘Action Reinforcement Learning versus Rule Learning.’ By Dale O. Stahl (University of Texas, at Austin).

Paper/Chapter 4: ‘Experience and Efficient Learning under Little Information – an Experimental Global Supergame.’ By Atanasios Mitropoulos (Otto-Von-Guericke University, Magdeburg).

Paper/Chapter 5: ‘Similarity Models as an Approach to Behavior Violating Expected Utility.’ By David Buschena (Montana State University).

Paper/Chapter 6: ‘Bounded Rationality and Imperfect Learning: Game Theory vs AI.’ By Philippe Jehiel (University College, London).

Paper/Chapter 7: ‘Using Neural Networks to Model Bounded Rationality in Interactive Decision-Making.’ By Daniel Sgroi (formerly Churchill College, Cambridge; now University of Warwick).

Chapter 8: 'Instance-Based Cognitive Models of Decision-Making.’ By Cleotilde Gonzalez and Christian Lebiere (Carnegie-Mellon University).

Chapter 9: ‘Simple and Compound Lotteries: Experimental Evidence and Neural Network Modelling.’ By Daniel J. Zizzo (Christ Church College, Oxford).

Synopsis

This is a special issue/book on bounded rationality. It comes in the wake of the explosion of interest in behavioral and experimental economics as testified by the identity of the 2002 Nobel Prize winners, Daniel Kahneman and Vernon Smith. The book is an authoritative guide of contributions by economists and psychologists on current research approaches regarding the perception of decision problems and transfer of knowledge in economic decision-making. It comprises of entirely new studies, carefully solicited/commissioned and rigorously processed, and aims to move from recognition that certain boundedly-rational anomalies exist to an explanation of why it is so.

Transfer of knowledge plays an important, if all-too-often neglected, role in the determination of bounded-rational behavior. For most economic situations are not identical to previous situations the agent has been faced with, and the dichotomy between perfect rationality and zero rationality – the belief that experience is irrelevant because anyway optimal play is chosen and the belief that it is irrelevant because agents do not store knowledge or cannot perceive similarity, and start every time afresh – is an implausible one. As an example to make this clear, consider how you would face the following challenge. You believe yourself to be a fair player of a certain board game, and have to decide what odds you place on your chances of winning versus a beginner. How would you change your odds of winning if you were told (a) your opponent rarely plays any board games at all; (b) your opponent is pretty good at chess and a few other board games; (c) your opponent has been taught to grand master chess standard, and known to be a very strong player of many other board games? Any sensible player would consider even a complete beginner with the sort of record of player (c) to be a tough challenge, and (a) to be the easiest of all. Now consider two common ways of modeling this situation. We could simply assert that something close to optimal play will always occur, so in cases (a), (b) and (c) previous experience would be an irrelevant factor. Or we could follow a more evolutionary approach, and care only about how many times our opponent has played the particular board game before: once again, we would then be uninterested in experience with any other game. In both cases, we get the counterintuitive result that how an agent plays a game is entirely independent of how well he plays in other games.

Real-world economic agents are not perfectly rational, but equally they are not entirely naive when they face new situations. What they do is to take clues from the way they perceive the decision problem to transfer relevant knowledge on how to choose in the decision task. Sometimes this is done in ways that may give rise to framing effects or other behavioural anomalies both in individual choice and in game-theoretical decision-making. Thus, transfer of knowledge is likely to play an essential role in explaining bounded-rational behaviour. Transfer of knowledge may be vertical, meaning that it entails the abstraction of rules and features which are then applied to similar contexts, or may be horizontal, meaning that it implies the direct and context-sensitive assimilation of the decision problem to another which is similar and familiar. The book presents the first systematic investigation of the problem of transfer of knowledge, both vertical and horizontal, in relation to economic decision-making. It is hoped that it will help attracting new interest on the topic by researchers interested in pursuing more realistic empirical and theoretical foundations for economic decision-making.

Other Information

I moved from Oxford to UEA in September 2004. I was a Senior Lecturer at UEA between 2004 and 2007, and I became a full Professor in August 2007.

General queries concerning undergraduate admissions at UEA should be addressed to eco.admiss@uea.ac.uk, and about graduate admissions at UEA to ssf.admissions@uea.ac.uk. I give a talk about our postgraduate degrees as part of our online postgraduate virtual open day.

I am very interested in supervising good research students, and queries by potential research students related to whether they would fit with my research interests for supervision purposes can be addressed directly to me. Five former postgraduate students whom I either supervised or provided guidance to in the last few years are currently either lecturers/assistant professors or holding postdoctoral positions, namely Natalie Gold, Jonathan Tan, Luke Garrod, Andrea Isoni and Ivaylo Vlaev. I am currently supervising four doctoral students.

I very much welcome queries from private or public sector institutions interested in funding research or consultancy work of potential interest to me. Queries from universities with a potential interest are also always welcome. We employ the CBESS experimental facilities for running experiments at UEA. My CCP personal page can be found here.

My MA Oxford was obtained 'by resolution', i.e. it is a purely honorary title. My last three positions in Oxford were as a stipendiary lecturer at Brasenose College (1999-2000) and first as a Junior Research Fellow (postdoc, 2000-2001) and then as a University Lecturer and College Fellow (2001-2004) at Christ Church College. An Oxford undergraduate thesis experiment instructions on "Who is Responsive to Trust?" (by Magdalena Malinowska, 2003) can be found here.

Please contact me if you find any broken link.

A complete CV is available on request.

Last updated: January 30, 2010.

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