IU Economics Hosts Ostrom-Smith Conference on Experimental and Behavioral Economics

By Daniela Puzzello

On Saturday, April 8, 2023, faculty members and graduate students from the IU Department of Economics and the Purdue University Department of Economics, gathered to attend the fifth Ostrom-Smith Conference on Experimental and Behavioral Economics. True to its name, this joint conference draws upon the deep tradition of experimental economics at IU and Purdue. With the exception of the pandemic years, the conference alternates annually between IU and Purdue, and was first held in Bloomington in 2017. Daniela Puzzello, professor of economics at IU (Ph.D. graduate of Purdue), and Tim Cason, distinguished professor of economics at Purdue (former IU undergraduate), organized the 2023 conference.

In addition to facilitating the dissemination of new ideas and fostering collaborations between IU and Purdue researchers, the conference provides a platform for mentoring and advising emerging scholars. Indeed, in line with tradition, conference presenters were for the most part graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and assistant professors.

The conference this year began with a session discussing applications of experimental methods to macroeconomics, highlighting that experimental methods are now commonly used to address questions in nearly every field of economics. Over the last several decades, economics has seen advances in micro-founded macro models, as well as computerized platforms, that enable researchers to conduct complex, large-scale, experiments and integrate decision making by representative households. In turn, these advances mean that it is now both possible and appropriate to use controlled laboratory experiments to study economic decision making in fields such as macroeconomics, fields that historically were not deemed conducive to experimental approaches. Other sessions in the conference this year covered a wide range of topics including novel applications of experimental methods to game theory, market design and behavioral political economy.

Conference Presenters 2023

Sergii Drobot (Indiana Univ.), “The Role of Social Media in Expectations Formation”
Marcos Cardozo (Purdue Univ.), (IU Econ Ph.D. 2022), “On the Emergence of International Currencies: An Experimental Approach”
Rupal Kamdar (Indiana Univ.), “How Do Households Respond to Expected Inflation? An Investigation of Transmission Mechanisms”
Jieqiong (Cicy) Jin (Purdue Univ.), “Behavioral Spillovers in Cooperation Games”
Daniela Valdivia (Indiana Univ.), “Sequential Play in the Minimum Effort Game”
Chris Brown (Purdue Univ.), “Local Inequality and Own Rank Preferences”
Yaroslav Rosokha (Purdue Univ.), “Evolution of Cooperation in the Indefinitely Repeated Collective Action with a Contest for Power”
Xinxin Lyu (Purdue Univ.), “Pay for the Privilege: Does a Global Club Good Opportunity Ruin Local Public Good Provision?”
Alexander Marchal (Purdue Univ.), “Trust and Welfare Effects of Revealed Reputations in Information Cascades”
Dawoon Jeong (Purdue Univ.), “Efficiency and equity of posted price markets for irrigation water: experimental evidence”
Junya Zhou (Purdue Univ.), “Happiness Dynamics, Reference Dependence and Motivated Beliefs in U.S. Presidential Elections”

2023 Meeting of the Midwest Econometrics Group

This year, the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland was the host of the 2023 Midwest Econometrics Group (MEG) meeting which took place on October 12-13. Professor Yoosoon Chang, an econometrician in the IU Bloomington Department of Economics, is the Director and Coordinator of the MEG which was established in 1991.

The Department of Economics was well represented at this meeting. Our faculty members Yoosoon Chang, Joon Park, and Laura Liu were joined by our recent Ph.D. graduates Eunhee Lee from Gyeongsang University, Korea and Guo Yan, now at the University of Melbourne, as well as Michael DeDad, IU Econ Ph.D. 2020, Assistant Professor at The University of Akron. Our Ph.D. student participants included Doyeon Pyun, Sangmyung Ha, Naoya Nagasaka, and Chao Wang; all presented and competed for the inaugural Best Student Paper Award.

As always, Yoosoon Chang organized, together with a local organizer, the mentoring workshop for junior female economists that she started in 2013 when she organized the MEG meeting in our department. Upon request from the Committee on the Status of Women in Economics Profession (CSWEP), a subcommittee of the American Economic Association, she wrote an article about this first mentoring workshop in their newsletter in 2014, entitled Reflections on the MEG 2013 Mentoring Workshop for Junior Female Economists. According to the Chair of CSWEP, this article serves as a great introduction to a fascinating new mentoring approach. Our recent Ph.D. alumna, Guo Yan, now at the start of her economics career, found attending the mentoring workshop highly beneficial. Read her article here.

Next year, the MEG mentoring workshop will celebrate its 10th anniversary; it will be held at the University of Kentucky and will host a reunion of all the mentors and mentees who have been matched by the MEG mentoring workshop.

Professor Chang announced that generous support has been provided by Ken Weakley, an Associate Clinical Professor in the IU Kelley School of Business, to establish a new MEG tradition of presenting a monetary award for the two best student papers, chosen by the MEG Best Paper Selection Committee. The selection committee consists of two continuing MEG members (Jefferey Wooldridge of MSU and Michael McCracken of St Louis FED), and a member from the local organizing committee (James Mitchell from the Cleveland FED this year). Professor Weakley states: “It is my great honor to be a supporter of your program, one of several I have committed to over the years since my academic career began in 2008. My overriding philanthropic goal relates to my effort to give back to society through educational program support. Education represents to me society’s greatest achievement, both because of the selfless effort of educators and unending dreams of students. To be a participant of this process through financial support remains an important element of my life and nothing less than a sublime experience.”

Department Hosts Fall Reception

The 2023 Department of Economics Fall Reception was held on October 19 in the beautiful Indiana Memorial Union Federal Room and featured a taco bar. Graduate students, faculty, emeriti faculty, and staff enjoyed good food and conversation. Our alumnus, Robert Johnson, was in town and attended our reception. Mr. Johnson is a 1988 graduate and a generous supporter of the department. A highlight of the fall reception was the announcement that our Ph.D. student Sangmyung Ha was the Best Third Year Paper Award winner. Congratulations, Mr. Ha!