The Selten School of Behavioral Economics

Axel Ockenfels is Professor of Economics at the University of Cologne and Director of the Cologne Laboratory of Economic Research. His research focuses on behavioral and design economics. The goal of much of his recent research and applied work is to improve the performance of 'real world' markets and institutions, as well as to analyze and model individual strategies in negotiation and bidding. Ockenfels has published prominently in many research areas, including economics, business administration, information systems, psychology, and sociology. He received his diploma in economics from the University of Bonn, and both his Ph.D. and Habilitation from the University of Magdeburg. Before his current position, Ockenfels spent a couple of years at the Penn State University, Harvard University, and the Max Planck Institute of Economics in Jena. Ockenfels is a Member of the Berlin-Brandenburgische Academy of Sciences and of the Nordrhein Westfalian Academy of Sciences. In 2005 he received the Leibniz Prize of the German Science Foundation. Abdolkarim Sadrieh is Professor of Economics and Management at the University of Magdeburg and on the Scientific Board of the Magdeburg Laboratory for Experimental Economics. His research focuses on applications of game theory and experimental economics to a wide range of interaction design issues in management and economics. He has published prominently on the design of consumer and labor markets, supply-chain interaction, environmental decision-making, work incentives in organizations, and taxation. Sadrieh received his diploma and his Ph.D. in economics from the University of Bonn. Before his current position, Sadrieh was the Director of the Bonn Laboratory for Experimental Economics and the Director of the CentERlab at Tilburg University. Currently, he is the Vice President of the German Association for Experimental Economic Research (GfeW).

Reinhard Selten, to date the only German Nobel Prize laureate in economics, celebrates his 80th birthday in 2010. While his contributions to game theory are well-known, the behavioral side of his scientific work has received less public exposure, even though he has been committed to experimental research during his entire career, publishing more experimental than theoretical papers in top-tier journals. This Festschrift is dedicated to Reinhard Selten s exceptional influence on behavioral and experimental economics. In this collection of academic highlight papers, a number of his students are joined by leading scholars in experimental research to document the historical role of the Meister in the development of the research methodology and of several sub-fields of behavioral economics. Next to the academic insight in these highly active fields of experimental research, the papers also provide a glance at Reinhard Selten s academic and personal interaction with his students and peers.

This Festschrift is dedicated to Reinhard Selten s exceptional influence on behavioral and experimental economics. The collection of academic papers comprizes of his students, as well as leading scholars in experimental research, and document the historical role of the Meister in behavioral economics.

Provides an overview of Reinhard Selten' s behavior-based micro-economic theory

Exceptional Academic Behavior.- Reinhard Selten a Wanderer.- Encounters with Reinhard Selten: An Office Mate s Report.- Reinhard Selten s Frankfurt Years from the Perspective of a Co-player.- Reinhard Selten and the Scientific Climate in Frankfurt During the Fifties.- Reinhard Selten Labs, Bounded Rationality and China.- Strategic Behavior.- Drei Oligopolexperimente.- Deviations from Equilibrium in an Experiment on Signaling Games: First Results.- Strategy Choice and Network Effects.- Walking with Reinhard Selten and the Guessing Game: From the Origin to the Brain.- Pro-Social Behavior.- Understanding Negotiations: A Video Approach in Experimental Gaming.- Institutions Fostering Public Goods Provision.- Social Behavior in Economic Games.- Organizational Behavior.- The Equity Principle in Employment Relationships.- The Analysis of Incentives in Firms: An Experimental Approach.- Risky-Choice Behavior.- Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon s Essays on Moral Arithmetic .- Risky Choice and the Construction of Preferences.