Experimental economics, children’s economic preferences, team decision-making, credence goods markets, patience, public goods

Matthias Sutter is the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn and part-time Professor of Experimental Economics at the Universities of Cologne and Innsbruck. Furthermore, he is a Research Fellow of the IZA and CESifo. He studied Economics in Innsbruck and received his PhD in 1999. Before taking over the executive management of the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in 2017, he worked as a full professor in Florence (EUI), Innsbruck, and Cologne.

Published papers

• Children’s Patience and School-Track Choices several Years later: Linking Experimental and Field Data

  Angerer, S., Bolvashenkova, J., Glätzle-Rützle, D., Lergetporer, P., & Sutter, M. Children’s Patience and School-Track Choices several Years later: Linking Experimental and Field Data. Journal of Public Economics (forthcoming).

• Too Lucky to be True. Fairness Views under the Shadow of Cheating (forthcoming, earlier Discussion Paper version)

  Bortolotti, S., Soraperra, I., Sutter, M., & Zoller, C. Too Lucky to be True. Fairness Views under the Shadow of Cheating. Review of Economics and Statistics (forthcoming).

• Competitiveness of Entrepreneurs and Salaried Workers (forthcoming, earlier Discussion Paper version)

  Balafoutas, L., Batsaikhan, M., & Sutter, M. Competitiveness of entrepreneurs and salaried workers. Management Science (forthcoming).

• Social Preferences of Young Professionals and the Financial Industry

  Gill, A., Heinz, M., Schumacher, H., Sutter, M., Trustworthiness in the Financial Industry. Management Science (forthcoming).

• Economic Preferences across Generations and Family Clusters: A Large-scale Experiment in a Developing Country

  Chowdhury, S., Sutter, M., & Zimmermann, K. F. (2022), Economic Preferences across Generations and Family Clusters: A Large-scale Experiment in a Developing Country. Journal of Political Economy.

• COVID-19 Within Families Amplifies the Prosociality Gap between Adolescents of High and Low Socioeconomic Status

  Terrier, C., Chen, D., & Sutter, M. (2021), COVID-19 within families amplifies the prosociality gap between adolescents of high and low socioeconomic status. PNAS – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118(46): e2110891118.

• Collective Intertemporal Decisions and Heterogeneity in Groups

  Glätzle-Rützler, D., Lergetporer, P., Sutter, M., Collective intertemporal decisions and heterogeneity in groups. Games and Economic Behavior (forthcoming).

• National Parochialism is Ubiquitous across 42 Nations around the World

  Romano, A., Sutter, M., Liu, J.H. et al. National parochialism is ubiquitous across 42 nations around the world. Nat Commun 12, 4456 (2021).

• On the Value of Second Opinions: A Credence Goods Field Experiment

  Bindra, P. C., Kerschbamer, R., Neururer, D., & Sutter, M. (2021) On the Value of Second Opinions: A Credence Goods Field Experiment. Economics Letters.

• Discrimination, Narratives and Family History: An Experiment with Jordanian Host and Syrian Refugee Children

  Barron, K., Harmgart, H., Huck, S., Schneider, S., & Sutter. M. (2021) Discrimination, Narratives and Family History: An Experiment with Jordanian Host and Syrian Refugee Children. Review of Economics and Statistics.

• Children’s Heterogeneity in Cooperation and Parental Background: An Experimental Study

  Sutter, M., & Untertrifaller, A. (2020). Children's heterogeneity in cooperation and parental background: An experimental study. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 171, 286-296.

• Measuring the Indirect Effects of Adverse Employer Behaviour on Worker Productivity: A Field Experiment

  Heinz, M., Jeworrek, S., Mertins, V., Schumacher, H., & Sutter, M. (2020). Measuring the Indirect Effects of Adverse Employer Behavior on Worker Productivity – A Field Experiment. The Economic Journal.

• To Buy or Not to Buy? Price Salience in an Online Shopping Field Experiment

  Dertwinkel-Kalt, M., Köster, M., Sutter, M. (2020). To Buy or Not to Buy? Price Salience in an Online Shopping Field Experiment. European Economic Review.

Discussion papers

• Financial Literacy, Experimental Preference Measures and Field Behavior – A Randomized Educational Intervention

• Homophily and Transmission of Behavioral Traits in Social Networks

• Information Provision over the Phone Saves Lives: An RCT to Contain COVID-19 in Rural Bangladesh at the Pandemic’s Onset

• Reputation vs Selection Effects in Markets with Informational Asymmetries

• The Politicized Pandemic: Ideological Polarization and the Behavioral Response to COVID-19

• The Roots of Cooperation

• Parental Paternalism and Patience

• Collective Intertemporal Decisions and Heterogeneity in Groups

• Improving Healthy Eating in Children: Experimental Evidence

• Diagnostic Uncertainty and Insurance Coverage in Credence Goods Markets

• Higher Order Risk Preferences: New Experimental Measures, Determinants and Field Behavior

• Psychological Pressure and the Right to Determine the Moves in Dynamic Tournaments – Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment

• Trustworthiness in the Financial Industry

• Reveal it or Conceal it: On the Value of Second Opinions in a Low-Entry-Barriers Credence Goods Market

• Discrimination, Narratives and Family History: An Experiment with Jordanian Host and Syrian Refugee Children

What is the best thing about your job?

The luxury of dealing with questions that I find interesting.

If you had not gone into research, what would you be doing today?

Ever since I was young I knew I wanted to do scientific work – even though I studied theology and only started my economics degree at the age of 24. But I am interested in multiple scientific disciplines, including mathematics and physics, for example.

Who or what inspires you?

Daily life and observing how people behave.

When was the last time you had to change your mind?

Constantly, for instance when evaluating empirical data and comparing them with my priors. But these are exactly the exciting points at which one would like to dig deeper.

Which advice would you have needed yourself as a doctoral student?

I got the most important one from my PhD-supervisor: Do what you are passionate about, then you will work best.