beliefs
Beliefs and expectations govern how individuals interact with the world around them. They play a central role in every decision-making process. But individuals’ views of the world are often systematically biased.
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Beliefs and expectations govern how individuals interact with the world around them. They play a central role in every decision-making process. But individuals’ views of the world are often systematically biased.
Building on Tversky and Kahneman’s heuristics and biases program, extensive empirical literature in economics has emerged with the focus of unearthing the micro-foundations of biased belief-formation processes. Empirical studies have demonstrated the crucial role of such belief distortions for a broad range of economic outcomes, for example, boom and bust cycles at the aggregate level of the economy, corporate investment, educational choices, political behavior, and unemployment insurance.
In 2020 Florian Zimmermann received a Starting Grant from the European Research Council, which provides roughly 1.3 million euros over five years for his project on "The Role of Memory for Economic Belief Formation." His previous papers on the foundation of belief formation processes got published in the American Economic Review and the Review of Economic Studies.
Alongside our residential researchers, a majority of the briq visiting professors and research affiliates worked on beliefs and expectations, making briq a European research hub in this field. In 2019, we organized the briq Beliefs Workshop bringing together leading scientists from around the world.
