News

CERGE-EI Researchers Win the 2017 Exeter Prize

13 September, 2017

We are happy to announce that CERGE-EI faculty members and researchers won the 2017 Exeter Prize for the best paper published in a peer-reviewed journal in the fields of Experimental Economics, Behavioral Economics and Decision Theory in the previous calendar year.

The winners are Vojtěch Bartoš, Michal Bauer, Julie Chytilová, and Filip Matějka for their paper "Attention Discrimination: Theory and Field Experiments with Monitoring Information Acquisition", published in the American Economic Review.

The paper proposes a theory of discrimination in which levels of attention to information about applicants to a market depend both on whether the applicant is a member of an “attractive” group and on the structural features of the market.  Methodologically, it seeks to test theory about the processes leading to observed outcomes with enhanced measurement tools, rather than relying solely on comparative static predictions that neglect those processes. Field experiments complement prior laboratory research into the processes of selective attention, and span rental housing and labor markets in the Czech Republic and Germany. The results support some core hypotheses about discrimination, and raise nuanced hypotheses for future normative research.

The winning paper was selected by the panel of Glenn Harrison (Georgia State University), Michael Mandler (Royal Holloway, University of London), and Michel Regenwetter (University of Illinois). The authors will be visiting the University of Exeter to receive the award and give a public lecture in November.

Join us in congratulating the winners!