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Welcome! I am Max, a doctoral student in economics at the University of Cologne, specializing in the behavioral foundations of political economy. I am on the 2024–2025 academic job market (worldwide). My research uses experimental and survey methods to address questions such as:
- How do we create formal rules? When do we respect others’ choices?
- How do the mental models of policymakers manifest in policy?
- What shapes public support for controversial policies?
I am also an expert programmer and keen user of open-source software. My research sometimes uses advanced methods such as large language models or computational approaches for data science.
Knowledge and Freedom: Evidence on the Relationship Between Information and Paternalism
Job Market Paper
I run simple experiments to see how a decision-maker’s knowledge affects the freedom others give them. If people know what they’re doing, others interfere less with their choices. A safe option is more likely to be imposed. Policymakers understand that decision-maker mistakes can work in their favor.
#paternalism #experiment #microtheory
Expand full abstract
When is autonomy granted to a decision-maker based on their knowledge, and if no autonomy is granted, what form will the intervention take? A parsimonious theory shows how policymakers can exploit decision-maker mistakes and use them as a justification for intervention. In two experiments, policymakers (“Choice Architects”) can intervene in a choice faced by a decision-maker. We vary the amount of knowledge decision-makers possess about the choice. Full decision-maker knowledge causes more than a 60\% reduction in intervention rates. Beliefs have a small, robust correlation with interventions on the intensive margin. Choice Architects disproportionately prefer to have decision-makers make informed decisions. Interveners are less likely to provide information. As theory predicts, the same applies to Choice Architects who believe that decision-maker mistakes align with their own preference. When Choice Architects are informed about the decision-maker’s preference, this information is used to determine the imposed option. However, Choice Architects employ their own preference to a similar extent. A riskless option is causally more likely to be imposed, being correlated with but conceptually distinct from Choice Architects' own preference. This is a qualification to what has been termed “projective paternalism.”
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Notify meExperience
Currently, I manage the Cologne Laboratory for Economic Research, one of the largest experimental economics laboratories. I was an Oskar Morgenstern Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Technology
Among other things, I developed otree_slider and alter_ego.
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