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Research

The research of SEEL is based around several different overarching and interrelated themes (Choice Behaviours; Experimental Health Economics; Behavioural Economics Research; Environmental, Resource and Energy Economics; Other Research). Below are some selected publications from SEEL members.

Theme 1 – Choice Behaviours

A key element of experimental economics is to study the decisions made by economic agents, within both individual decision-making settings and strategic interactions. This is a fundamental part of understanding economic behaviour and is a core component of research by SEEL members and done in the laboratory. 

Selected Key Publications:

  • Samreen Malik, Benedikt Mihm, Parental religiosity and human capital development: A field study in Pakistan, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Volume 197, 2022: 519-560, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2022.03.015

  • Samreen Malik, Benedikt Mihm, Maximilian Mihm, Florian Timme, Gender differences in bargaining with asymmetric information, Journal of Economic Psychology, Volume 86, 2021,102415, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2021.102415.

  • L. Mittone and Mauro Papi, “Inducing alternative-based and characteristic-based search procedures in risky choice,” Judgment and Decision Making, 15, 2020: 371-80. http://journal.sjdm.org/19/190308/jdm190308.pdf

  • R. Mabsout and Hossein Radmard, "Experimenting with the Coase theorem." Journal of Economic Methodology, 27, no. 1, 2020: 1-17

  • D. Regier, J. Sicsic, and Verity Watson, “Choice certainty and deliberative thinking in discrete choice experiments: A theoretical and empirical investigation,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 164, 2019: 235-55.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2019.05.031

  • Juergen Bracht and A. Zylbersztejn, “Moral judgments, gender, and antisocial preferences: an experimental study,” Theory and Decision, 85, 2018: 389-406.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-018-9668-6

  • Malik, S., Mihm, B. & Timme, F. An experimental analysis of tax avoidance policies. Int Tax Public Finance, 25, 2018: 200–239 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10797-017-9448-1

  • Soenke Hoffmann, Benedikt Mihm, Joachim Weimann, To commit or not to commit? An experimental investigation of pre-commitments in bargaining situations with asymmetric information, Journal of Public Economics, Volume 121, 2015: 95-105, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2014.11.005.

  • Hagen Ackermann, Martin Fochmann, Benedikt Mihm, Biased effects of taxes and subsidies on portfolio choices, Economics Letters, Volume 120, Issue 1, 2013: 23-26, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2013.03.038.

Theme 2 – Experimental Health Economics

A natural linkage for experimental research is in health economics. Building on strong ties between the Economics Department and the Health Economics Research Unit (HERU), SEEL has been used to support researchers doing experiments around health, from understanding doctor’s behaviour in consultations with patients, and participants behaviour in discrete choice experiments in health contexts to the interrelationship between payment contracts and physical health.

Selected Key Publications:

  • Loría-Rebolledo, L. E., van Woerden, H. C., Bryers, H., Erdem, S., & Watson, V. (2024). Preferences of Recent Mums in Remote and Rural Areas for Type of Intrapartum Care: A Discrete Choice Experiment. The Patient-Patient-Centered Outcomes Research, 1-10.

  • N. Andelic, J. Allan, K. Bender, D. Powell and I. Theodossiou, “Stress in Performance-related Pay: The Effect of Motivated Performance and Social-Evaluative Threat,” Stress, 26:1, 2283435, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1080/10253890.2023.2283435

  • N. Andelic, J. Allan, K. Bender, D. Powell and I. Theodossiou, “Salivary Cortisol in University Students after the COVID-19 Pandemic.” Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology, 12, Nov 2022, 100160.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpnec.2022.100160

  • Samreen Malik, Benedikt Mihm, Antje von Suchodoletz, COVID-19 lockdowns and children’s health and well-being, Journal of Economic Psychology, Volume 93, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2022.102549.

  • J. Allan, N. Andelic, K. Bender, D. Powell, S. Stoffel, and I. Theodossiou, “Employment Contracts and Stress: Experimental Evidence,” Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 187, 2021: 360-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2021.04.015

  • M. Swarzinger, Verity Watson, P. Arwidson, F. Alla and S. Luchini, “Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy in the French population of working age:  A survey experiment of vaccine characteristics, The Lancet Public Health, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2468-2667(21)00012-8

  • D. Dupré, Nicole Andelic, D. Moore, G. Morrison, G. and G. McKeown, “Analysis of physiological changes related to emotions during a zipline activity,” Sports Engineering, 23, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12283-020-00328-9

  • J. Allan, Keith Bender and I. Theodossiou, “Performance pay and low-grade stress: An experimental study,” WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment & Rehabilitation, 67, 2020: 449-57.  https://doi.org/10.3233/WOR-203294

  • A. Pierce, B. Mulhearn, Verity Watson, and R. Viney, “How are debriefing questions used in health discrete choice experiments?  An online survey,” Value in Health, 23, 2020: 289-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jval.2019.10.001

  • S. Cerroni, Verity Watson, D. Kalentakis and J. Macdiarmid, “Value-elicitation and value-formation properties of discrete choice experiment and experimental auctions,” European Journal of Agricultural Economics, 46, 2019: 3-27.  http://doi:10.1093/erae/jby014

  • H. Dickey, D. Ikenwilo, P Norwood, Verity Watson and A. Zangelidis, “ ‘Doctor my eyes’: A natural experiment on the demand for eye care services,” Social Science and Medicine, 150, 2016: 117-27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.12.037

Theme 3 – Behavioural Economics Research

The interest of the interaction between economics and psychology has led to increasing research in behavioural economics, at the theoretical, experimental and empirical levels. In laboratory settings, this research focuses on how economic agents make decisions, although it has also led to economic researchers thinking more broadly about noneconomic outcomes such as the economics of subjective well-being and other behavioural choices.

Selected Key Publications:

  • Nicole Andelic, C. Stevenson, and A. Feeney, “Managing a moral identity in debt advice conversations,” British Journal of Social Psychology, 58, 2019: 630-48.  https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12303

  • G. Gerasimou and Mauro Papi, “Duopolistic competition with choice-overloaded consumers,” European Economic Review, 101, 2018: 330-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2017.10.002

  • D. Kopasker, C. Montagna and Keith Bender, “Economic insecurity: A socioeconomic determinant of mental health,” SSM - Population Health, 6, 2018: 184-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.09.006  

  • Keith Bender and K. Roche, “Self-employment and the paradox of the contented female worker,” Small Business Economics, 47, 2016: 421-35.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11187-016-9731-z

  • Agathe Rouaix, C. Figuieres and M. Willinger, “The trade-off between welfare and equality in a public good experiment,” Social Choice and Welfare, 45, 2015: 601-23.  https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-015-0893-4

Theme 4 – Environmental, Resource and Energy Economics

This theme focuses on the design and functioning of environmental and energy markets, and related policy mechanisms. Recent research revolves around (i) the experimental investigation of tradeable emissions markets in relation to investment and innovation incentives; (ii) the design and performance of incentive-based policies for the protection and enhancement of the environment and ecosystems; and (iii) energy market design.

Selected Key Publications:

  • Robert Johnston, Tobias Börger, Nick Hanley, Keila Meginnis, Tom Ndebele, Ghamz E.A Siyal, Nicola Beaumont and Frans de Vries, “Consequences of Omitting Non-Lethal Wildlife Impacts from Stated Preference Scenarios,” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 126, 103011 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2024.103011

  • Tobias Börger, Nick Hanley, Robert Johnston, Keila Meginnis, Tom Ndebele, Ghamz E.A. Siyal and Frans de Vries, “Equity Preferences and Abatement Cost Sharing in International Environmental Agreements,” American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 106, 2024: 416-441. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajae.12392

  • Timothy Cason, John Stranlund and Frans de Vries, “Investment Incentives in Tradable Emissions Markets with Price Floors,” Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists,10(2), 2023. https://doi.org/10.1086/721755.

  • Laure Kuhfuss, Raphaële Préget, Sophie Thoyer, Frans de Vries and Nick Hanley, “Enhancing Spatial Coordination in Payment for Ecosystem Services Schemes with Non-Pecuniary Preferences,” Ecological Economics, 192, 107271, 2022.  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107271

  • Simanti Banerjee, Timothy Cason, Frans de Vries and Nick Hanley, “Spatial coordination and joint bidding in conservation auctions,” Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, 8, 1013-1049 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1086/714601

  • Timothy Cason and Frans de Vries, “Dynamic efficiency in experimental emissions trading markets with investment uncertainty,” Environmental and Resource Economics, 73, 1-31 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10640-018-0247-7

  • Simanti Banerjee, Timothy Cason, Frans de Vries and Nick Hanley, “Transaction costs, communication and spatial coordination in payment for ecosystem services schemes,” Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 83, 68-89 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2016.12.005 

Theme 5 – Other Research

Other selected papers by SEEL members include:

2024:

2022:

  • Mauro Papi “‘What is Important is Seldom Urgent and What is Urgent is Seldom Important’: A Study of the Strategic Implications of the Urgency Effect in a Competitive Setting”. Economic Theory Bulletin, 2022, https://rdcu.be/cUXWV

2020:

  • S. Cerroni, Verity Watson and J. Macdiarmid, “Consumers’ rationality and home-grown values for healthy and environmentally sustainable food,” Bio-based and Applied Economics, 8, 2020: 101-132.  https://doi.org/10.13128/bae-8927

  • Mauro Papi, “Ordered search with boundedly rational consumers,” EC2020 – Proceedings of the 21st ACM Conference on Economics and Computation, Association for Computing Machinery, 2020, 507-8. https://doi.org/10.1145/3391403.3399461

2019:

  • Nicole Andelic, A. Feeney, and G. McKeown, “ Evidence for communicative compensation in debt advice with reduced multimodality,” 2019 International Conference on Multimodal Interaction, 2019: 210-9.   https://doi.org/10.1145/3340555.3353757

  • K. Elliott, A. Patacconi, Joseph Swierzbinski and J. Williams, “Knowledge protection in firms: A conceptual framework and evidence from HP labs,” European Management Review, 16, 2019: 179-93.  https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12336

  • Verity Watson, T. Porteous, T. Bolt and M. Ryan, “Mode and frame matter: Assessing the impact of survey  mode  and  sample  frame  in  choice  experiments,” Medical Decision Making, 39, 2019: 827-41.  https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0272989X19871035  

2018:

  • D. Dupré, Nicole Andelic, G. Morrison, and G. McKeown, “Accuracy of three commercial automatic emotion recognition systems across different individuals and their facial expressions,” 2018 IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications Workshops (PerCom Workshops), 2018:  627-632.  https://doi.org/10.1109/PERCOMW.2018.8480127

  • D. Dupré, G. McKeown, Nicole Andelic, and G. Morrison, “Willingness to share emotion information on social media: Influence of personality and social context,” 2018 IEEE 5th International Conference on Data Science and Advanced Analytics (DSAA), 2018:  665-72.  https://doi.org/10.1109/DSAA.2018.00086

  • Mauro Papi, “Price competition with satisficing consumers,” International Journal of Industrial Organization, 58, 2018: 252-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijindorg.2017.09.001

2017:

  • N. Krucien, Verity Watson and M. Ryan, “Is best-worst scaling suitable for health state valuation? A comparison with discrete choice experiments,” Health Economics, 26, 2017: e1-e16. https://doi.org/10.1002/hec.3459

  • L. Mittone and Mauro Papi, “Does inducing choice procedures make individuals better off? An experimental study,” Theory and Decision, 83, 2017: 37-59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-017-9590-3

Funding Opportunities

Professor Joseph Swierzbinski was the long-time Director of SEEL who unexpectedly passed away in the Spring of 2020.  In honour of his dedication to SEEL and experimental research, the Joseph Swierzbinski Memorial Fund was established and generously funds internal grants for undergraduate, postgraduate taught and PhD research on experimental economics at the University of Aberdeen.  Please contact the SEEL Co-Directors for more information.

PhDs and Funded Projects

In addition to the individual themes and papers listed above, SEEL has been the home to a PhD research and funded projects.

  • Professor Joe Swierzbinski Memorial Fund - Undergraduate Students application form
  • Professor Joe Swierzbinski Memorial Fund - Postgraduate Taught Students application form
  • Professor Joe Swierzbinski Memorial Fund - Postgraduate Research Students application form
  • "Performance Related Pay and Health: An Interdisciplinary Study,” ESRC, 2019-2022.
  • Adebola Akinsanpe, PhD researcher, “Is the Process as Important as the Outcome? An Experimental/Theoretical Investigation of Procedural Decision Making Models”, current student.
  • Max Chan, PhD researcher, “Essays on Limited Cognition and Decision-Making in a Strategic Environment”. Completed 2020.
  • Despina Yiakoumi, PhD researcher, “Energy Market Design: Experimental Economics,” completed 2020.
  • Jae Ho Lee, PhD researcher, “Source of income effect on individual risk- and time-preferences: experimental approach”, completed 2015.