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Sabine Kröger

Professor at the Department of Economics, Université Laval

bio:

Sabine Kröger is a professor of behavioural economics at the Department of Economics at Laval University. She studies decision-making under uncertainty and how social norms, emotions and cognitive short cuts affect the decision-making process. She is the founder and director of the Laval Experimental Economics Laboratory. Her research covers amongst others the applications of behavioural insights on regulatory policy.

Website: https://www.fss.ulaval.ca/notre-faculte/repertoire-du-personnel/sabine-erika-kroger

3 questions:

  • What aspects of this research agenda are you most excited about?

I am excited about understanding how humans take their decisions. In particular, I am interested in measuring preferences and subjective expectations, two foundations of decision-making. Insights from such research will enable us developing decision aids for individuals and policy decision makers to make better, more satisfying and more durable decisions.

  • Of all the work you have done, what project / paper is your personal favourite and why?

One of my favourite personal research projects is working on social preferences, such as how trust and aversion against inequity affect the behaviour of persons in our society. Incorporating social preferences in economic models enabled to make more realistic predictions, allowing us to explain fiscal conformity, tax evasion, sticky wages and to derive policies taking this dimension into account. One of the challenges is to how to measure social preferences and to understand how they vary within a population. Some of my work deals with these issues. [If possible, you could link to the following article vulgarizing this research in English and French.

  •  Which is the one paper or book that you wish you had written (but have not)?

    There are too many to name… I admire writings of Richard Thaler (Nudge), George Akerlof and Rachel Cranton (Identity Economics), Dan Ariely (Predictably IRRATIONAL), and Matthew Rabin to name only a few who successfully present (behavioural) economics insights also to non-economists, showing how economics research can be fun and adventurous. I am surely inspired by their important research, yet accessible, and pedagogical writing.