The economics of decision processes, including game theory and behavioural economics.

I am a Professor in the School of Economics, and currently the Deputy Head of the School (from 2015) and Associate Dean for Research in the Faculty of Social Sciences (from 2016).  I received my PhD in Managerial Economics and Decision Science from Northwestern University in 2001, and my BS in Computer Science and in Economics from the California Institute of Technology in 1994.

I am interested in choice: specifically, how people go about making choices. My research programme extends the standard methods of economic analysis by taking account that the processes we use to make choices can affect not only what choice gets made, but how we feel about the outcomes of those choices as well.

Through the use of game theory, economists have recognised that the choices made in groups can depend on details of process such as timing and information. A strand of my research contributes to the standard application of game theory in economics and other disciplines, including via my Open Source software package, Gambit: Software Tools for Game Theory.

My work incorporates a richer notion of process, which takes into account the role that choice architecture, labeling, and social context, among others, colour the choice process. I am currently pursuing this as a co-I along with colleagues at UEA, Nottingham, and Warwick in the ESRC Network for Integrated Behavioural Science, under its theme "The science of consumer behaviour".

You can find additional information on my activities on my personal homepage.

PhD Supervision Interests

Game theory, auctions, the provision of public goods, contests, computational methods in game theory and economics, choice architecture.