Name
ROMMESWINKEL, Hendrik
Degree
Ph.D. in Economics and Finance
Status
Associate Professor
HP (URL)
Research Topic
Ambiguity, Flexibility, and Information in Decision-Making
I study how decision makers incorporate preference for knowledge and information into their decision making. Decision theory develops mathematical models that are used both to describe human behavior as well as prescribe how to behave rationally. When a decision affects the information received by a decision maker, the value of this knowledge gain needs to be accounted for in these models. For example, if a rational decision maker has some flexibility in the future in the form of a future choice under uncertainty, then a gain in knowledge can help reduce future uncertainty and thus lead to a better decision later on. However, many decision makers are not rational and are information averse about some information. Ambiguity averse decision makers prefer not to receive information that transforms objectively known probabilities into ambiguous events. For such decision makers, it is possible to identify the degree of ambiguity aversion from their preferences for and against information.
Common research questions I encounter in my work are: how do we identify what knowledge a decision maker is interested in, how do we measure the value of information, and how does the value of flexibility and information interact? Answering these questions may allow us to better predict human behavior in decisions under uncertainty and to optimize our economic institutions with regards to information acquisition.
Monthly Spotlight
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How do we measure people’s decisions?
Education and Academic Employment
[Academic Employment]
2022-ongoing Waseda Institute for Advanced Study
2020-2021 Erasmus University Rotterdam, Visiting Researcher
2015-2022 National Taiwan University, Assistant Professor
2014-2015 California Institute of Technology, Postdoctoral Researcher
[Education]
2013-2014 California Institute of Technology, Visiting Researcher
2010-2014 University of St.Gallen, Ph.D. in Economics and Finance
20008-2009 London School of Economics and Political Science, M.Sc. in Economics and Philosophy
2005-2008 University of St.Gallen, B.A. in Economics
Fields of Research Interests
Decision Theory, Social Choice and Welfare, Microeconomics
Academic Publications
- M. Kolmar and H. Rommeswinkel, “Contests with Group-Specific Public Goods and Complementarities in Efforts”, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, vol. 89, pp. 9-22, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jebo.2013.02.006, 2013.
- M. Kolmar and H. Rommeswinkel, “Group Size and Group Success in Conflicts”, Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 55, no. 4, pp. 777-822, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00355-020-01264-0, 2020.
Other Interests
Baking, Cycling, Physics, Mathematics
Affiliated Academic Organizations
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Awards
Fifth Sun-Chen Young Scholar Award, 2020.
