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Uri Gneezy

Epstein/Atkinson Chair in Management Leadership, Professor of Economics and Strategy

As a researcher, my focus is on putting behavioral economics to work in the real world, where theory can meet application. I’m looking for basic research as well as more applied approaches to such topics as incentives-based interventions to increase good habits and decrease bad ones, Pay-What-You-Want pricing, and the detrimental effects of small and large incentives. In addition to the traditional laboratory and field studies, I’m currently working with several firms, conducting experiments in which we’re using basic findings from behavioral economics to help companies achieve their traditional goals in non-traditional ways.

Before joining the Rady School, Gneezy was a faculty member at the University of Chicago, Technion and Haifa. Gneezy received his Ph.D. from the Center for Economic Research in Tilburg.

Books

Gneezy, U. & List, J. The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and the Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life. PublicAffairs, October 8, 2013. National and International best seller. Translated into Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese), Dutch, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Thai.

Gneezy, U. Mixed Signals: How Incentives Really Work. Yale University Press (forthcoming, fall 2022).


Papers in Journals

Serra-Garcia, M and Gneezy, U (2021). Mistakes. Overconfidence, and the Effect of Sharing on Detecting Lies. American Economic Review, 111 (10), 3160-3183.

Smitizsky, G., W. Liu and U. Gneezy (2021). "On the Value(s) of Time–Workers’ Value of Their Time Depends on Mode of Valuation.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (34).

Charness, G, Gneezy, U and Rasocha, V (2021). Experimental methods: Eliciting beliefs. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 189, 234-256.

Fries, T, Gneezy, U, Kajackaite, A. and Parra, D (2021). Observability and Lying. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 189, 132-149.

Buser, T, Cappelen, A, Gneezy, U, Hoffman, M. and Tungodden, B (2021). Competitiveness, Gender and Handedness. Economics and Human Biology. 43.

Enke, B., U. Gneezy, B. Hall, D. Martin, V. Nelidov, T. Offerman and J. van de Ven (2021). “Cognitive Biases: Mistakes or Missing Stakes?” Review of Economics and Statistics.

Smitizsky, G., W. Liu and U. Gneezy (2021). “The endowment effect: Loss aversion or a buy-sell discrepancy?” Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Gneezy, U., K. Laske and M. Schroder (2021). “Teams do not outperform individuals in a simple creative task.” Applied Economics Letters.

Serra-Garcia, M. and U. Gneezy (2021). “Nonreplicable publications are cited more than replicable ones.” Science Advances, 7, 21.

Gneezy, U. and A. Kajackaite (2021). “Externalities, stakes, and lying.” Journal Of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Serra Garcia, M., K. Hansen and U. Gneezy (2020) “Can Short Psychological Interventions Affect Academic Performance? Revisiting the Effect of Self-Affirmation Interventions,” Psychological Science, 31, 865-872.

Smerdon, D, T. Offerman and U. Gneezy (2020) “Everybody's doing it': on the persistence of bad social norms.” Experimental Economics, 23, 2, 392-420.

Gneezy, U., S. Saccardo, M. Serra Garcia and R. van Veldhuizen (2020). “Bribing the Self.” Games and Economic Behavior, 120, 311-324.

Gneezy, U., J.A. List, J.A. Livingston, X. Qin, S. Sadoff, and Y. Xu (2019). “Measuring Success in Education: The Role of Effort on the Test Itself.” American Economic Review: Insights, 291-308.

Gneezy, U., S. Saccardo and R. Van Veldhuizen (2019). Bribery: Behavioral drivers of distorted decisions. Journal of the European Economic Association, 917-946.

Fishman, A., R. Fishman, R., U. Gneezy (2019). A Tale of Two Food Stands: Observational Learning in the Field. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. 101-108.

Andersen, S., S. Ertac, U. Gneezy, J.A. List and S. Maximiano (2018). On the Cultural Basis of Gender Differences in Negotiation. Experimental Economics, 757-778.  

Flory, J., U.Gneezy, K. Leonard and J. A. List (2018). Gender, age and competition: A disappearing gap? Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 256-276.

Charness, G. U. Gneezy and A. Henderson (2018). Experimental methods: Measuring effort in economics experiments. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 74-87.

Ariely, D., U. Gneezy and E. Haruvy (2018). Social Norms and the Price of Zero. Journal of Consumer Psychology, 180-191.

Saccardo, S., Gneezy, U. & Pietraz, A. (2018). On the size of the Gender Difference in Competitiveness. Management Science, 1541-1554.

Charness, G., C. Eckel, U. Gneezy and A. Kajackaite (2018). Complexity in risk elicitation may affect the conclusions: A demonstration using gender differences. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 1-17.

Gneezy, U., A. Kajackaite and J. Sobel (2018). Lying aversion and the size of the lie. American Economic Review 419-453.

Andersen, S., U. Gneezy, A. Kajackaite and M. Julie (2018). Allowing for reflection time does not change behavior in dictatior and cheating games. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 24-33.

Jung, M., L. Nelson, A. Gneezy and U. Gneezy (2017). Signaling Virtue: Charitable Behavior under Consumer Elective Pricing. Marketing Science, 31, 187,-194."

Gneezy, U., Goette, L. Sprenger, C. & Zimmermann, F. (2017). The limits of expectations-based reference dependence.  Journal of the European Economic Association, 15, 861-876."

Gneezy, U., Gravert, C., Saccardo, S. &Tausch, F. (2017). A must lie situation: Avoiding giving negative feedback. Games and Economic Behavior 102, 445-454.

Kajackaite, A. & Gneezy, U. (2017). Incentives and Cheating. Games and Economic Behavior, 102, 433-444.

Alekseev, A., G. Charness & U. Gneezy (2017). Experimental methods: When and why contextual instructions are important. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 134, 48-59.

Charness, G., Gneezy, U. & Halladay, B. (2016). Experimental methods: Pay on or pay all. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 131, 141-150.

Gneezy, U., Leibrandt, A. & List, J.A. (2016). Ode of the sea: Workplace organizations and norms of cooperation. Economic Journal, 1856-1883.

Erat, S. & Gneezy, U. (2016). Incentives for Creativity. Experimental Economics. 19, 269-280.

Smeets, P., Bauer, R., & Gneezy, U. (2015). Giving Behavior of Millionaires. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 34, 10641-10644.

Bracha, A., Gneezy, U., & Loewenstein, G. (2015). Relative Pay and Labor Supply. Journal of Labor Economics, 33, 297-315

Hoffman. M., Suetens, S., Gneezy, U. & Nowark, MA. (2015). An Experimental Investigation of Evolutionary Dynamics in the Rock-Paper-Scissores Game. Scientific Reports.

Al-Ubaydli, O Andersen, S., Gneezy, U. & List, JA. (2015). Carrots That Look Like Sticks: Toward an Understanding of Multitasking Incentive Schemes. Southern Economic Journal, 81, 538-561

Gneezy, U., Imas, ., & Madarasz, K. (2014). Conscience Accounting: Emotion Dynamics and Social Behavior. Management Science, 60, 2645-2658

Gneezy, U., E. Keenan & A. Gneezy (2014). Avoiding Overhead Aversion in Charity. Science, 346, 632-635.

Jung, M.H., Nelson, L.D., Gneezy, A. & Gneezy, U. (2014). Paying More When Paying for Others. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 107, 3, 414-431".

Gneezy, A., Gneezy, U. & Lauga, D. (2014). Reference-Dependent Model of the Price-Quality Heuristic. Journal of Marketing Research, 153-164

Gneezy, U. & Rey-Biel, P.(2014). On the Relative Efficiency of Performance Pay and Noncontingent Incentives. Journal of the European Economic Association, 12,62-72.

Gneezy, U. & Imas, A. (2014). Materazzi Effect and the Strategic Use of Anger in Competitive Interactions. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 111(4),1334-1337.

Andersen, S., Ertac, S., Gneezy, U., List, J.A. & Sandra, S. (2013). Gender, Competitiveness, and Socialization at a Young Age: Evidence from a Matrilineal and a Patriarchal Society. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 95(4), 1438-1443.

Gneezy, U., Rockenbach, B. & Serra-Garcia, (2013) Measuring Lying Aversion. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 93,293-300.

Charness, G., Gneezy, U., & Kuhn, M. (2013). "Experimental Methods: Extra-Laboratory Experiments -Extending the Reach of Experimental Economics." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 91, 93-100.

Leibbrandt, A., Gneezy, U., & List, J.A. (2013). "Rise and Fall of Competitiveness in Individualistic and Collectivistic Societies." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110(23), 9305-9308.

Charness, G., Gneezy, U., & Imas, A. (2013). "Experimental Methods: Eliciting Risk Preferences." Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 87, 43-51.

Fershtman, C., Gneezy, U., & List, J. (2012). "Equity Aversion: Social Norms and the Desire to be Ahead." American Economic Journal - Microeconomics, 4(4), 131-144.

Charness, G., & Gneezy, U. (2012). "Strong Evidence for Gender Differences in Risk Taking." Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 83(1), 50-58.

Gneezy, A., U. Gneezy, G. Riener and L.D. Nelson (2012) "Pay-what-you-want, identity, and self-signaling in markets," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,109(19),7236-7240

Erat, S., & U. Gneezy (2012) "White Lies." Management Science, 58 (4), 723-733.

Charness, G., Gneezy, U. & Kuhn M (2012). Experimental Method: Between-Subject and Within-Subject Design. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 81, 1-8

Andersen, S., S. Ertac, S., & Gneezy,U. Hoffman, M. & List, J.A. (2011) "Stakes Matter in the Ultimatum Games." American Economic Review, 101(7), 3427-3439.

Hoffman, M., U. Gneezy and List, J.A (2011) "Nurture Affects Gender Differences in Spatial Abilities." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108(306), 14786-14788

Gneezy, U., Meier,S., &. Rey-Biel,P. (2011) "When and Why Incentives (Don't) Work to Modify Behavior." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 25(4), 191-209.

Fershtman, C., U. Gneezy and M. Hoffman (2011) "Taboos and Identity: Considering the Unthinkable," American Economic Journal: Microeconomics,3(2), 139-164.

Fershtman, C., & Gneezy, U. (2011). "The Tradeoff Between Performance and Quitting in High Power Tournaments." Journal of the European Economic Association, 9(2), 318-336.

Al-Ubaydli, O., Gneezy, U., & Lee, M. (2010). Towards an Understanding of the Relative Strengths of Positive and Negative Reciprocity. Judgment and Decision Making, 5(7), 524-539.

Gneezy, U; Rustichini, A.,& Vostroknutov, A, (2010) "Experience and Insight in the Race Game," Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 75(2), 144-155.

Gneezy, A., U. Gneezy, L.D. Nelson, and A. Brown (2010) "Shared Social Responsibility: A Field Experiment in Pay-What-You-Want Pricing and Charitable Giving," Science, 329(5989), 325-327.

Blume, A., & Gneezy, U. (2010) "Cognitive Forward Induction and Coordination without Common Knowledge: An Experimental Study," Games and Economic Behavior, 68(2), 488-511.

Charness, G. and U. Gneezy (2010) “Portfolio Choice and Risk Attitudes: An experiment,” Economic Inquiry, 48(1), 133-146.

Gneezy, U, Leonard, K.L. and List, J.A. (2009) “Gender Differences in Competition: Evidence from a Matrilineal and a Patriarchal Society,” Econometrica, 77(5), 1637-1664.

Croson, R. and Gneezy, U. (2009) “Gender Differences in Preferences,” Journal of Economic Literature, 47 (2), 448-474.

Charness, G. and U. Gneezy(2009) “Incentives to Exercise.” Econometrica, 77 (3), 909-931.

Ariely, D., U. Gneezy, G. Loewenstein and N. Mazar (2009) “Large Stakes and Big Mistakes,” The Review of Economic Studies, 76(2), 451-469.

Charness, G. and Gneezy, U. (2008).“What's in a Name? Anonymity and Social Distance in Dictator and Ultimatum Games,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization,68(1), 29-35.

Crawford, V.P., Gneezy, U. and Y. Rottenstreich (2008)“The Power of Focal Points is Limited: Even Minute Payoff Asymmetry May Yield Large Coordination Failures,” American Economic Review, 98 (4), 1443-1458.

Andersen, S., Bulte, E., Gneezy, U. and List, J.A .(2008) “Do Women Supply More Public Goods than Men? Preliminary Experimental Evidence from Matrilineal and Patriarchal Societies,” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 98 (2), 376-381.

Dufwenberg, M, Gneezy, U., J.K. Goeree and R. Nagel(207) “Price Floors and Competition,” Economic Theory, 33(1) 211-224.

Gneezy, U., J. List and G. Wu (2006) “The Uncertainty Effect: When a Risky Prospect is Valued Less than its Worst Possible Outcome.” Quarterly Journal of Economics,121(4), 1283-1309

Gneezy, U., and R. Smorodinsky “All-Pay Auctions: An Experimental Study,” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 61(2), 255-275.

Gneezy, U. and J.A. List, (2006) “Putting Behavioral Economics to Work: Testing for Gift Exchange in Labor Markets Using Field Experiments,” Econometrica, 74(5), 1365-1384..

Gneezy, U.(2005) “Step-Level Reasoning and Bidding in Auctions,” Management Science, 51(11), 1633-1642.

Fershtman, C, Gneezy, U., and F. Verboven(2005) “Discrimination and Nepotism: The Efficiency of the Anonymity Rule,” TheJournal of Legal Studies, 34(2), 371-394.

Gneezy, U. (2005)“Deception: The Role of Consequences,” American Economic Review,95(1), 384-394.

Gneezy, U., and A. Rustichini (2004)“Gender and Competition at a Young Age,” American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 94(2), 377-381.

Gneezy, U., E. Haruvy, and H. Yafe(2004) “The Inefficiency of Splitting the Bill” The Economic Journal, 114(495), 265-280.

Gneezy, U., E. Haruvy, and A. Roth (2003)“Bargaining Under a Deadline: Evidence from the Reverse Ultimatum Game,” Games and Economic Behavior, 4592), 347-368.

Gneezy, U., M. Niederle, and A. Rustichini (2003)“Performance in Competitive Environments: Gender Differences,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics,118(3), 1049-1074.

Gneezy, U., A. Kapteyn, and J. Potters(2003) “Evaluation Periods and Asset Prices in a Market Experiment,” Journal of Finance,58(2), 821-837..

Bornstein, G., Gneezy, U., and R. Nagel (2002)“The Effect of Intergroup Competition on Group Coordination: An Experimental Study,” Games and Economic Behavior, 41(1), 1-25.

Dufwenberg, M., and Gneezy, U.(2002) “Information Disclosure in Auctions: An Experiment” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 48(4), 431-444.

Bornstein, G. and Gneezy, U. (2002)“Price Competition Between Teams.” Experimental Economics,5(1), 29-38.

Fershtman, C., and Gneezy, U. (2001)“Strategic Delegation: An Experiment,”The RAND Journal of Economics, 32(2), 352-368.

Fershtman, C., and Gneezy, U.(2001) “Discrimination in a Segmented Society: An Experimental Approach,” Quarterly Journal of Economics,116(1), 351-377.

Gneezy, U., W. Guth, and F. Verboven(2000) “Presents or Investments? An Experimental Analysis,” Journal of Economic Psychology, 21(5), 481-493.

Gneezy, U., and A. Rustichini(2000) “Pay Enough or Don't Pay At All.” Quarterly Journal of Economics,115(3), 791-810.

Gneezy, U., and A. Rustichini (2000)“A Fine is a Price,”The Journal of Legal Studies, 29(1),1-17.

Dufwenberg, M., and Gneezy, U.(2000) “Measuring Beliefs in an Experimental Lost Wallet Game,” Games and Economic Behavior, 30(2), 163-182.

Dufwenberg, M., and Gneezy, U. (2000)“Price Competition and Market Concentration: An Experimental Study,” International Journal of Industrial Organization 18(1), 7-22.

Blume, A., and Gneezy, U.(2000) “An Experimental Investigation of Optimal Learning in Coordination Games,” Journal of Economic Theory, 90(1), 161-172.

Gneezy, U., and J. Potters (1997)“An Experiment on Risk Taking and Evaluation Periods,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics,112(2), 631-645.

Gneezy, U. (1996)“Probability Judgment in Multi-Stage Problems: Experimental Evidence of Systematic Biases,” Acta Psychologica 93(1-3), 59-68.

Behavioral Economics
Field Experiments
Strategy