Research Interests
- Sustainable Finance
- Behavioral Finance
- Philanthropy
- Experimental Economics
- Millionaires
Sustainable Finance
- Do Financial Advisors Exploit Responsible Investment Preferences? (with Marten Laudi and Utz Weitzel)
- "Get real! Individuals Prefer More Sustainable Investments" (with Rob Bauer and Tobias Ruof). The Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have created societal and political pressure for pension funds to address sustainable investing. We run two field surveys (n=1,669 and n=3,186) with a pension fund that grants its members a real vote on its sustainable-investment policy. Two thirds of participants are willing to expand the fund’s engagement with companies based on selected SDGs, even when they expect engagement to hurt the financial performance. The support remains strong after the fund implemented the choice. A key reason is participants’ strong social preferences.
- Pre-registration at OSF: https://osf.io/pz7rn/
- Yale-RFS Conference on Real and Private-Value Assets
- Watch paper's video
- "Why Do Investors Hold Socially Responsible Mutual Funds?" The Journal of Finance (with Arno Riedl)
Covered by Harvard Law School Forum
- "Social Identification and Investment Decisions", Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 117, September 2015, 121-134 (with Rob Bauer)
- Best paper award by the United Nations PRI
The extent to which investors at socially responsible banks can identify with their socially responsible investments is an important driver for allocations to socially responsible banks. Return expectations and risk preferences also play a role, but are less important. Providers of socially responsible investments can benefit from creating strong social connections with their clients.
Millionaires
- "Why Do the Rich Oppose Redistribution? An Experiment with America’s Top 5%" (with Alain Cohn, Lasse Jessen and Marko Klasjna) AEA 2020, San Diego
- "Giving Behavior of Millionaires", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, August 2015 (with Rob Bauer and Uri Gneezy)
- "Buying Time Promotes Happiness", Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (with Ashley Whillans, Elizabeth Dunn, Rene Bekkers and Michael Norton)
- “Time Use and Happiness of Millionaires: Evidence from the Netherlands” Social Psychological and Personality Science (with Ashley Whillans, Rene Bekkers and Michael Norton)
- Pre-registration at the OSF: https://osf.io/vndmt/
- The Joy of Giving: Evidence From a Matching Experiment With Millionaires and the General Population" (with Rene Bekkers, Ashley Whillans and Michael Norton). AEA 2019, Atlanta
- Are Socio-economic Status and Prosocial/Ethical Behavior Related? Three Replications of Piff et al.’s (2012) Field Studies (with Minah Jung, Joachim Vosgerau and Jan Stoop). Revise and Resubmit of the Pre-registered Replication Report at The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
Behavioral Finance
- "Investor Memory" (with Katrin Godker and Peiran Jiao), AFA 2020 San Diego
- "A Fistful of Dollars: Financial Incentives, Peer Information, and Retirment Savings" (with Rob Bauer and Inka Eberhardt), The Review of Financial Studies, forthcoming
- Pre-registration at the AEA RCT Registry: https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/987
- "Do sex hormones at birth predict later-life economic preferences? Evidence from a pregnancy birth cohort study" (with Boris van Leeuwen, Jeanne Bovet, Gideon Nave, Jonathan Stieglitz and Andrew Whitehouse) The Proceedings of the Royal Society B. 287(1941)
- "Towards a practical and scientifically sound tool for measuring time and risk preferences in pension savings decisions" (with Jan Potters and Arno Riedl)
Charity Effectiveness
- Breaking Down Menstrual Barriers in Bangladesh; Cluster RCT Evidence on School Attendance and Psychosocial Outcomes of Adolescent Girls (with Eleonora Nilessen and Lidwien Sol)
- Meet the Parents: Impact of a Menstrual Health Intervention on Parental Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Towards Menstrual Taboos in Rural Bangladesh (with Eleonora Nilessen and Lidwien Sol)
- The effects of music education on children’s non-cognitive skills
Philanthropy Reports
- "High Net Worth Individuals Philanthropy Trends: A Comparative Study of France and the Netherlands", 2017 Philanthropy Report in collaboration with ABN AMRO MeesPierson
- "De Geefondernemer", 2016 Philanthropy Report in collaboration with ABN AMRO MeesPierson
- "Van Vermogen Naar Verandering", 2014 Philanthropy Report in collaboration with ABN AMRO MeesPierson
- "Sociaal Gedrag Linkse en Rechtse Kiezers", Economische en Statistische Berichten, August 2012
Joint projects with financial institutions