Cluster for Research in Economic Policy using Theory and Experiments (CREPTEX)

Leader: Professor Rajiv Sarin

This Cluster was formed from the merger of two separate research groups earlier in the year. The research interests of the cluster cover a wide range of topics. These include game theory, experimental and behavioural economics, mechanism design, theory of comparative statics, voting, electoral competition, economic policy making, political economy and development economics. Members publish their research in top rated journals and present their work in seminars and in conferences in universities worldwide. The group organises several widely attended internal meetings, workshops, conferences. Members of the group have held several research grants from funding bodies including ESRC, World Bank and British Academy.

Staff

Facundo Albornoz-Crespo
Facundo Albornoz works on different dimensions of economic policy, institutional development and international trade; in particular, his recent research focuses on the determinants of the school system (with Sami Berlinski and Antonio Cabrales) and how education outcomes and resources are affected by immigration (with Antonio Cabrales and Esther Hauk); the effect of foreign influence on political regimes (with Toke Aidt) and domestic conflicts (with Esther Hauk); and the determinants of export success at the firm level, emphasising uncertainty (with Hector Calvo, Gregory Corcos and Emanuel Ornelas) and previous export experience (with Juan Carlos Hallak).

Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay
Bandyopadhyay is an applied economic theorist working on various topics in political economy and public policy. His current research focuses on political coalitions and theoretical and empirical work on the economics of crime.

Giovanna d'Adda
Development Economics, Behavioural Economics, Experimental Economics

Michalis Drouvelis
Drouvelis’ research interests are in the area of behavioural and experimental economics. Currently, his main research interests are on social preferences, on voluntary cooperation in the presence of free rider incentives, and on coordination games.

Jayasri Dutta
Dutta has worked and published on Econometric theory, Development Economics,  Monetary and Fiscal policy analysis, Political Economy and Economic History. The last two figure prominently in current research interests.

Brit Grosskopf
Grosskopf's research is in the area of experimental economics and concerns human decision-making and its effect on economic exchange. Her work incorporates concepts from psychology into economic research. She has worked on issues related to bargaining, cheap talk, contract and market design, expression of emotions, fairness, happiness and reputation.

Martin Jensen
Martin Jensen is a mathematical economist whose current research interest lie within game theory, turnpike theory, and comparative statics methods. He also does work in growth and development economics.

Emiliya Lazarova
Lazarova works on various topics in coalition formation and two-sided matching problems where she explores issues of stability. In particular, she has studied contracts and compensation in the context of transferrable utility games, pair-wise stability in the context of network formation, a new type of a bargaining set in the context of weighted majority games, partial cooperation in the context of normal form games, and dynamic bargaining in multilateral markets.  In the area of many-to-many matching problems with peer effects she works on a characterization of stable outcomes.

Indrajit Ray
Ray works on different issues related to communication in games; in particular, his research focuses on theoretical concepts such as implementation in correlated strategies, mediation in cheap talk games and applied topics such as (weak) correlation in oligopolies and environmental games; he also is involved in experiments to test these notions.

Colin Rowat
Rowat works primarily on weak property rights.  This work began by considering the possibility of non-linear strategies in differential games, and continued to address the consequences of intertemporal transfer technologies in dynamic commons games.  More recently, he has sought to endogenise the structure of property rights, working with pillage games, a class of cooperative games..

Rajiv Sarin
Sarin works in decision and game theory. The approach he takes to both are behavioral. He has modeled learning in decisions and games, in the spirit of psychological/behavioral treatments of the subjects. He has also experimentally tested some of the models he has developed as well as those developed by others.

PhD students

*Supervisors in brackets.

  • Jaekyun Ahn (Jensen)
  • Amshika Amar (Albornoz)
  • Alexander Ampaabeng (Dutta, Albornoz)
  • Marios Demetriades (Dutta, Horsewood)
  • Saptarshi Ghosh (Roy, Postl)
  • Alexandros Rigos (Jensen, Ray)
  • Sonali Sengupta (Ray, Cole)

Visitors

*The following acadmics have visited our cluster (for at least a few days) in the recent past (2008 onwards).

Anna Bogomolnaia
Rice

Sandro Brusco
Stony Brook

Antonio Cabrales
Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Archishman Chakraborty
York University

Kalyan Chatterjee
Pennsylvania State University

Shubhabrata Das
IIM Bangalore

Marcin Dziubinski
Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge

Joan Maria Esteban
IAE-CSIC

Chirantan Ganguly
Queen’s University, Belfast

Juan Carlos Hallak
Universidad de San Andres

Jim Jordan
Penn State

Bryan McCannon
Wake Forest University

Herve Moulin 
Rice

Tomas Sjostrom
Rutgers University

Publications

*Selected pubulications for the current REF period. 

backhouse
Author(s)  Journal articles 

Albornoz-Crespo, F. and T. Aidt (2011)               

"Political Regimes and Foreign Intervention." Journal of Development Economics, 94(2),192-201.
Albornoz-Crespo, F. and P. Vanin (2010)   "Trade Protection and Industrial Structure." B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, Topics, Berkeley Electronic Press, 10(1), Art. 57. 
Albornoz-Crespo, F., T. Kendall and G. Corcos (2009)  "Subsidy Competition and the Mode of FDI." Regional Science and Urban Economics, 39(4), 489-501. 
Albornoz-Crespo, F., M.A. Cole, R.J.R. Elliott and M.G. Ercolani (2009)  "Foreign Direct Investment and Environmental Management: in Search of Environmental Spillovers." World Economy, 32 (1): 136-163.
banerjee
Author(s)  Journal articles 
Bandyopadhyay, S., K. Chatterjee and T. Sjostrom (forthcoming)  "Pre-Electrocal Coalitions and Post-Election Bargaining." Quarterly Journal of Political Science. 
Bandyopadhyay, S. and K. Chatterjee (2010)  "Crime Reporting, Profiling and Neighbourhood Observation." B.E. Press Theory Advances, 10(1), 7. 
Bandyopadhyay, S. and M.P. Oak (2008)  "Coalition Governments in a Model of Parliamentary Democracy." European Journal of Political Economy, 24(3), 554-561. 
Barassi
Author(s)  Journal articles 
Drouvelis, M., W. Müller and A. Possajennikov (forthcoming) "Signaling without a Common Prior: Results on Experimental Equilibrium Selection." Games and Economic Behavior. 
Drouvelis, M., R. Cubitt, S. Gächter and R. Kabalin (2011)  "Moral Judgments in Social Dilemmas: how Bad is Free Riding?" Journal of Public Economics, 95(3-4), 253-264.
Drouvelis, M., R. Cubitt and S. Gächter (2011)  "Framing and Free Riding: Emotional Responses and Punishment in Social Dilemma Games." Experimental Economics, 14(2), 254-272. 
Drouvelis, M., M. Montero and M. Sefton (2010)  "Gaining Power through Enlargement: Strategic Foundations and Experimental Evidence." Games and Economic Behavior, 69(1), 274-292. 
ercolani
Author(s)        Journal articles 
Dutta, J., T. Aidt and M. Daunton (2010) )             "The Retrenchment Hypothesis and the Extension of the Franchise in England and Wales", The Economic Journal, 120(547), 990-1020. 
Dutta, J. and T. Aidt (2009)   "Strategic Consensus and Heterogenous Voters: Provison of Public Goods with Random Voter Turnout." Public Finance and Management, 9(2). 
Dutta, J., T. Aidt and V. Sena (2008)    "Governance Regimes, Corruption and Growth: Theory and Evidence." Journal of Comparative Economics, 36(2), 195-220.
Dutta, J. and T. Aidt (2008)  "Policy Compromises: Corruption and Regulation in a Democracy." Economics and Politics, 20(3), 335-360. 
ercolani m
Author(s)  Journal articles 
Grosskopf, B. and R. Sarin (2010)  "Is Reputation Good or Bad? An Experiment."American Economic Review, 100(5), 2187-2204.             
Grosskopf, B. and A. Roth (2010)  "If you are Offered the Right of First Refusal, should you Accept? An Investigation of Contract Design." Games and Economic Behavior, 65(1), 176-204. 
Coats, J., T. Gronberg and B. Grosskopf (2009)  "Simultaneous versus Sequential Public Good Provision and the Role of Refunds - An Experimental Study." Journal of Public Economics, 93(1-2), 326-335.
Grosskopf, B. and R. Nagel (2008) "The Two-Person Beauty Contest Game." Games and Economic Behavior, 62(1), 93-99. 

  

ercolani m
Author(s)  Journal articles 
Jensen, M. (forthcoming)    "Global Stability and the 'Turnpike' in Optimal Unbounded Growth Models." Journal of Economic Theory.            
Acemoglu D. and M. Jensen (2010)  "Robust Comparative Statics in Large Static Games." IEEE Proceedings on Decision and Control, 3133-3139. 
Jensen, M. (2010)  "Aggregative Games and Best-Reply Potentials." Economic Theory, 43(1), 45-66.
Dalgaard C. and M. Jensen (2009)  "Life-cycle Savings, Bequest, and a Diminishing Impact from Scale on Growth." Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 33(9), 1639-1647. 

  
fender
Author(s)  Journal articles 
Chakrabarti, S.,  R. Gilles, and E. Lazarova (2011)    "Strategic Behavior under Partial Cooperation." Theory and Decision, 71(2), 175-193.
Dimitrov, D. and E. Lazarova (2011)  "Two-sided Coalitional Matchings." Mathematical Social Sciences, 62(1), 46-54. 
Di Maria, C., S. Ferreira and E. Lazarova (2010)   "Shedding Light on the Light Bulb Puzzle: the Role of Attitudes and Perceptions in the Adoption of Energy Efficient Light Bulbs." Scottish Journal of Political Economy, 57(1), 48-67. 
Lazarova, E. and D. Dimitrov. (2010)   "Balanced Weights and Three-Sided Coalition Formation." Games, 1(2), 159-167. 
horeswood
Author(s)  Journal articles 
Postl P. (forthcoming)  "Strategy Proof Compromises" (forthcoming), Advances in Theoretical Economics, The B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics.
Börgers, T and P. Postl (2009)  "Efficient Compromising." Journal of Economic Theory, 144(5), 2057-2076.
reade
Author(s)  Journal articles 
Kar, A., I. Ray and R. Serrano (2010)  "A Difficulty in Implementing Correlated Equilibrium Distributions." Games and Economic Behavior, 69(1): 189-193.            
Ray, I. (2008)  "Multiplicity of Equilibrium in Canonical and Non-Canonical Correlation Devices: an Example." Arthaniti (New Series), 7(1-2): 74-84. 
strobel
Author(s)  Journal articles 
Ayres, I., C. Rowat and N. Zakariya (2011)  "Optional Voting Rules for Two Member Tenure Committees." Social Choice and Welfare, 36(2), 323-354. 
Kerber, M. and C. Rowat (2010)  "A Ramsey Bound on Stable Sets in Jordan Pillage Games." International Journal of Game Theory. 
roy journal articles
Author(s)  Journal articles 
Brusco, S., M. Dziubinski and J. Roy (forthcoming)  "Hotelling-Downs Model of Electoral Competition with Runoff Voting." Games and Economic Behavior. 
Brusco, S. and J. Roy (2010)  "Aggregate Uncertainty in the Citizen-Candidate Model Yields Extremist Parties." Social Choice and Welfare, 36(1), 83-104. 
Chowdhury P.R. and J. Roy (2009)  "Public-private Partnership in Microfinance: Should NGO Involvement be Restricted?" Journal of Development Economics, 90(2), 200-208. 
Chakraborty S. and J. Roy (2009)  "Recursive Expected Utility and the Separation of Attitudes towards Risk and Ambiguity." Theory and Decision, 66(3): 199-228. 
roy journal articles
Author(s)  Journal articles 
Grosskopf, B. and R. Sarin (2010)   "Is Reputation Good or Bad? An Experiment."American Economic Review, 100(5), 2187-2204.
Rai, B.and R. Sarin (2009) "Generalized Contest Success Functions." Economic Theory, 40, 139-149. 

Working papers

2011

2011
Numbers  Discussion paper titles  Author(s) 
11-03                              Efficiency vs Optimality in Procurement  Peter Postl 
05-08RR             Simple Mediation in a Cheap-Talk Game  Chirantan Ganguly and Indrajit Ray 
10-26R Determinants of Violent and Property Crimes in England: A Panel Data Analysis  Lu Han, Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Samrat Bhattacharya 
11-06 Workplace Deviance and the Business Cycle  Aniruddha Bagchi and Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay 
11-07 R&D Co-operation with Entry  Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Arijit Mukherjee 
11-08 The Effect of the Election of Prosecutors on Criminal Trials  Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Bryan C McCanon 
10-12R Strategy Proof Compromises  Peter Postl 

2010

2010 papers
Numbers  Discussion paper title  Author(s) 
06-04R   Crime Reporting: Profiling and Neighbourhood Observation

             
Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Kalyan Chatterjee 
10-04  Conflict and Leadership: Why is There a Hawkish Drift in Politics?  Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Mandar Oak 
10-05  Stable Sets in Multi-good Pillage Games are Small  Alan F Breardon and Colin Rowat 
10-08  Sequential Exporting  Facundo Albornoz, Hector F Calvo Pardo and Gregory Corcos 
10-10  Fiscal Centralization and the Political Process  Facundo Albornoz and Antonio Cabrales 
10-11  Prosecutorial Retention: Signalling by Trial  Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Bryan C McCannon 
10-12  Dominant Strategy Compromises  Peter Postl 
09-10R  Pre-Electoral Coalitions and Post-Election Bargaining  Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, Kalyan Chatterjee and Tomas Sjöström 
10-26  Determinants of Violent and Property Crimes in England and Wales: A Panel Data Analysis              Lu Han, Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Samrat Bhattacharya 
10-28  Re-election Concerns and the Failure of Plea Bargaining  J L Ford and Zahid Mohammad 



10-34  The Behavioural Consequences of Unfair Punishment  Michalis Drouvelis

2009

2009 papers
Numbers  Discussion paper title  Author(s) 
09-01  A Ramsey Bound on Jordan Stable Sets  Manfred Kerber and Colin Rowat 
09-01R  A Ramsey Bound on Stable Sets in Jordan Pillage Games  Manfred Kerber and Colin Rowat 
09-03  Government Information Transparency  Facundo Albornoz, Joan Esteban and Paolo Vanin 
09-07  Stable Sets in Three Agent Pillage Games  Manfred Kerber and Colin Rowat 
09-10  Pre-electoral Coalitions and Post-election Bargaining  Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay, Kalyan Chatterjee and Tömas Sjöstrom 
05-08R Simple Mediation in a Cheap-Talk Game  Chirantan Ganguly and Indrajit Ray 
 

2008

2008 papers
Numbers  Discussion paper title  Author(s) 
08-02  Investment and Expropriation under Oligarchy and Democracy in a Heckscher-Ohlin World  Facundo Albornoz, Sebastian Galiani and Daniel Heymann 
08-03  In Search of Environmental Spillovers  Facundo Albornoz, Matthew A. Cole, Robert J.R. Elliott and Marco G. Ercolani 
06-11R  Efficient Compromising  Tilman Börgers and Peter Postl 
08-07  Crime Reporting: Profiling and Neighbourhood Observation Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Kalyan Chatterjee 

Research grants

*Selected research grants held by cluster members from 2002 onwards.

Source: British Academy 
Title: Communication in Teams 
Researcher(s): Chirantan Ganguly (PI), Indrajit Ray 
Amount: £7,300 
Period: April 2010 to March 2012

Source: British Academy 
Title: Mediation in Environmental Games 
Researcher(s): Indrajit Ray 
Amount: £7,500 
Period: March 2010 to August 2011

Source: British Academy
Title: Happiness and Morality in Strategic Interaction Games
Researcher(s): Michalis Drouvelis (PI), Nattavudh Powdthavee
Amount: £6,000
Period:February 2010 to January 2011

Source: NSF 
Title: Expressing Emotions in Economics
Researcher(s): Brit Grosskopf
Amount: $171,327
Period: 2010 to 2012

Source: Wake Forest Social and Behavioral Sciences Fund 
Title: The Effect of the Impact of Prosecutors on the Criminal Justice System 
Researcher(s): Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Bryan McCannon 
Amount: $2,935 
Period: 2010 to 2011

Source: British Academy
Title: Happiness and Morality in Strategic Interaction Games
Researcher(s): Michalis Drouvelis (PI), Nattavudh Powdthavee
Amount: £6,000
Period: February 2010 to January 2011

Source: ESRC
Title: International Dimensions of Political Regime Dynamics
Researcher(s): Facundo Albornoz (PI), Emanuel Ornelas (LSE), Sebastian Galiani (Washington), Toke Aidt (Cambridge) 
Period: October 2008 to March 2011

Source: NSF 
Title: An Experimental Analysis of the Impact of Reputations
Researcher(s): Brit Grosskopf and Rajiv Sarin
Amount: $220,179
Period: 2007 to 2010

Source: Hough Family Foundation Fund 
Title: For Developing Collaborative Research between the Investigators 
Researcher(s): Siddhartha Bandyopadhyay and Bryan McCannon 
Amount: $7,000 
Period: 2007 to 2010

Source: ESRC
Title: Weak Property Rights: Financial Markets and Development
Researcher(s): Colin Rowat and Jayasri Dutta
Period: April 2005 to March 2008

Source: World Bank
Title: The Economic effects of Infrastructure in India
Researcher(s): Esra Bennathan and Jayasri Dutta
Period: 2002 to 2008

Source: ESRC
Title: Policy Myopia
Researcher(s): Toke Aidt and Jayasri Dutta
Period: 2000 to 2006

Events

Past Event

Date: 19 November 2010
Venue: G06 & Atrium, Birmingham Business School
Title: British Academy Workshop on "Communication in Teams"