Ernst Fehr
| Born | June 21, 1956 Hard, Austria |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Austria |
| Institution | University of Zürich |
| Field | Behavioral economics |
| Alma mater | University of Vienna |
| Influenced | Armin Falk |
| Awards | Gossen Prize (1999), Marcel Benoist Prize (2008) |
| Information at IDEAS/RePEc | |
Ernst Fehr (born June 21, 1956) is an economist from Austria. He is Professor of Microeconomics and Experimental Economic Research and chairman of the Department of Economics at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. His research covers the areas of the evolution of human cooperation and sociality, in particular fairness, reciprocity and bounded rationality.
He is also well-known for his important contributions to the new field of neuroeconomics, as well as to behavioral finance and experimental economics. According to IDEAS/REPEC, he is the second-most influential German-speaking economist, and is ranked at 99th globally.[1]
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[edit] Why Social Preferences Matter
In his 2002 collaboration with Urs Fischbacher, Why Social Preferences Matter — The Impact of Non-Selfish Motives on Competition, Cooperation and Incentives, he begins with the abstract:
A substantial number of people exhibit social preferences, which means they are not solely motivated by material self-interest but also care positively or negatively for the material payoffs of relevant reference agents. We show empirically that economists can fail to understand fundamental economic questions when they disregard social preferences, in particular, that without taking social preferences into account, it is not possible to understand adequately (i) effects of competition on market outcomes, (ii) laws governing cooperation and collective action, (iii) effects and the determinants of material incentives, (iv) which contracts and property rights arrangements are optimal, and (v) important forces shaping social norms and market failures.
He conjectures that we could call economics "the dismal science" because it consistently assumes the worst in human motives, which contrasts sharply with the pervasive idea that consumer tastes are heterogeneous. He attacks the idea on two fronts. First, because a great amount of evidence has contradicted the selfishness hypothesis; second, because failure to regard other-concerning behavior ignores central market activities.[2]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Top 10% Authors, as of September 2011". IDEAS/REPEC. http://ideas.repec.org/top/top.person.all.html. Retrieved 2011-10-09.
- ^ The Economic Journal, "Why Social Preferences Matter — The Impact of Non-Selfish Motives on Competition, Cooperation and Incentives" (Blackwell Publishers, Oxford and Malden, 2002) Vol. 112, No. 489 C1-C33
[edit] External links
- University of Zürich, Department of Economics
- Homepage of Ernst Fehr
- Prof. Ernst Fehr as Chairman of the Board, FehrAdvice & Partners
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