When you get a tough question, the putting-hand-in-pocket-and-pointing-at-the-slides stare down always works! (it has never worked)
Vincent Meisner
@vincentmeisner.bsky.social
Economic theorist and bsky late adopter. Berlin School of Economics Mechanism Design, Market Design https://sites.google.com/site/vincentmeisner/
Cool music, love it... but is that an ashtray in the lecture hall? (end of the video)
This is not just another summer workshop in Berlin, but actually TWO conferences! The 2nd Berlin PhD Conference consists of an Applied Micro part and a part on micro theory and behavioral economics: sites.google.com/vie... Keynotes by Esmée Zwiers, Simon Jäger, Jeanne Hagenbach, and Botond Köszegi.
Why didn't I sign up for the Writers in Paris wellness retreat?
Great stuff happening in Berlin! Look at our market design workshop at @wzb.bsky.social ! @rationalitycrc.bsky.social
I got some bread as complimentary breakfast in my night train to 🇨🇭. I wanted to give it to someone begging in the streets. However, looking at the prices, I am realizing the beggar is me.
How does ambiguity affect trade between a price-setting seller and an ambiguity-sensitive buyer? We find that the right kind of ambiguous information makes both the buyer and seller better off than any possible unambiguous information.
Benefits and Challenges of Ambiguous Product Information
Lang & Wasser "Benefits and Challenges of Ambiguous Product Information" CRC Discussion Paper No. 564
190researchblog.substack.com
How does competitive pressure fail to protect buyers in information markets? Our new model of "portfolio competition" shows that when signals are complements, sellers leverage the buyer's desire for the joint portfolio to extract the full social surplus.
Portfolio Competition: Why Conventional Antitrust Fails in Oligopolistic Information Markets
Achim & Strausz: "Oligopolistic Information Markets" CRC Discussion Paper No. 554
190researchblog.substack.com
Why can boosting product quality actually reduce a manufacturer's profits? Our findings show that when retailers control pricing, increasing demand strengthens the retailer's power, compelling manufacturers to give up more profit and optimally limit product quality.
When Better Products Hurt Profits: The Hidden Costs of Quality in Retail
Shin & Strausz: "Demand-Investment in Distribution Channels" CRC Discussion Paper No. 553
190researchblog.substack.com
Join us for the 2nd Berlin PhD Conference in Economics on July 6-8, 2026!
Berlin School of Economics@bsoeberlin.bsky.social · 8mo ago📣 Call for Papers Join us for the 2nd Berlin PhD Conference in Economics on July 6-8, 2026. 🗓 July 6-8, 2026 ⏰ Application deadline: 25 January 2026 🔗 Learn more & apply: berlinschoolofeconomics.de/event-detail... @wzb.bsky.social @hertieschool.bsky.social #phdconference
I am visiting Cyprus for EWMES and it's raining with a storm coming up. I feel cheated. Nobody has it as hard as me.
Update on the state of the job market courtesy of a nudge by @gottliebecon.bsky.social It's bad! paulgp.com/2025/11/24/j...
Economics Job Market Update: November 2025 - A Historic Low
paulgp.com
Very interesting study with a dataset constructed from news articles!
CRC Rationality & Competition@rationalitycrc.bsky.social · 9mo agoDoes the scientific community sanction sexual misconduct unrelated to research integrity? Our new study finds a citation penalty: a significant decline in citations to the prior work of accused scientists. 190researchblog.subs...
Have a look at our paper on centralized school-choice mechanisms!
CRC Rationality & Competition@rationalitycrc.bsky.social · 9mo agoHow market design can fall short despite strategy-proofness: Our new experiment shows that underconfidence systematically induces significantly more instability (justified envy) than overconfidence in school choice. 190researchblog.subs...
Today, the blog posts about my office mate Willy's research! Tomorrow, it's about my research! Stay tuned!
CRC Rationality & Competition@rationalitycrc.bsky.social · 9mo agoHow can information backfire in fighting hidden actions? Our new theory reveals the mechanism of surplus squeezing: costly perfect verification enables the seller to extract all buyer surplus, collapsing trade, while noisy verification sustains market exchange.
Pre-registration has become mainstream, yet trade-offs persist: Our new survey finds that researchers assign a credibility premium to significant results from pre-registered tests, but a significant proportion expects a negative impact on research creativity and volume.
Mapping Open Science: New Data on Pre-Registration in Experimental Economics
Imai et al.: "Pre-Registration and Pre-Analysis Plans in Experimental Economics" CRC Discussion Paper No. 530
190researchblog.substack.com
Is China a "Paper Tiger" when it comes to scientific quality? Our investigation into citation home bias reveals China exhibits the largest bias globally, demonstrating that its apparent rise in citation rankings is overstated. 190researchblog.subs...
I will present at the ES Winter Meeting, and I couldn't search and find my name on the program. I was about to message the organizers. The reason I didn't find me is that I went through all theory sessions, but in fact I am presenting in "Experimental Economics II." Still getting used to this...
How much does out-of-school learning influence foreign-language acquisition? Our new analysis shows that historical national decisions to subtitle imported TV content systematically result in a large positive effect on English-language skills. open.substack.com/pu...
How to incentivise cooperation when monetary incentives are costly or ineffective? Our experiment shows a public recognition award increases employee willingness to help by 21%, leveraging social image towards peers and management-related reputation.
How Public Recognition Drives Cooperation Among Knowledge Workers
Discussion Paper No. 531
190researchblog.substack.com
Apologies in advance, I will share every single one of these posts next week! One of them will also be about my research!
CRC Rationality & Competition@rationalitycrc.bsky.social · 9mo agoDear fans of the CRC TRR 190, Next week, we will launch our research blog CRC TRR 190 Coffee Break! There will be a blog post about our most recent exciting research every day, from Monday to Sunday. Afterwards, we will post every Monday, 1pm CET.
The song is inspired by a woman the singer met in London in the 80s, and the funniest rumor is that this woman later married the Greek economist and former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis. It's probably not true, but he fueled the rumor himself 🙃
Maia@maiamindel.bsky.social · 10mo agothought the song "common people" by pulp was called normal people and was by blur...
The semester is about to start and today I was asked if I am a freshman. That's a clear sign that I don't work enough.
I feel like I have missed out on promoting our most recent school-choice experiment here: papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....
I am happy to say that now, 3 days after the conference and 3 days before I fly back, my body has adjusted to the Korean time zone.