Uri Gneezy

Gneezy studied economics at Tel Aviv University, where he obtained a BA degree and graduated with honors. He later got his MA and PhD (1997) at the CentER for Economic Research at Tilburg University in Tilburg, the Netherlands.[1]

Gneezy, who frequently contributes to the Freakonomics website,[2] is known for designing simple, clever experiments to demonstrate behavioral phenomena that open up new research directions in behavioral economics. Examples include his work on when and how incentives work, deception, gender differences in competitiveness, and behavioral pricing.[3] Gneezy and coauthor John A. List have published a book on the hidden motives and undiscovered economics of everyday life, titled "The Why Axis."[4]

In 2014, Gneezy cofounded Gneezy Consulting, a business consultation company that specializes in behavioral economics.

Before joining the Rady School, Gneezy was a faculty member at the University of Chicago, Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, and Haifa University. He was a visiting professor at the University of Amsterdam Center for Research in Experimental Economics and Political Decision Making (CREED).

Since receiving his Ph.D. from Tilburg University in 1997, Gneezy has started a few lines of research that have become part of the agenda in behavioral economics. Examples include papers on gender differences, discrimination, deception, the uncertainty effect, and the counter-productivity of incentives. In his research, he typically starts with new and original questions the literature has not yet investigated, and addresses them with simple empirical demonstrations of powerful psychological effects.[5] Rather than testing theories, Gneezy begins with the demonstration of behavioral effect.

Gneezy currently resides in San Diego, California, with his wife and three children.[1]

• "Pay Enough or Don't Pay At All", Quarterly Journal of Economics August 2000, 791–810. (with Aldo Rustichini)
• "A Fine Is a Price", Journal of Legal Studies, vol. XXIX, 1, part 1, 2000, 1–18. (with Aldo Rustichini)
• "Large Stakes and Big Mistakes", Review of Economic Studies, 76, 2008, 451–69. (with Dan Ariely, George Loewenstein, and Nina Mazar)
• "Incentives to Exercise" (PDF). Econometrica. 77 (3): 909–931. May 2009. doi:10.3982/ECTA7416. (with Gary Charness)
• Gneezy, Uri; Meier, Stephan; Rey-Biel, Pedro (Fall 2011). "When and Why Incentives (Don't) Work to Modify Behavior" (PDF). Journal of Economic Perspectives. 25 (4): 191–210. doi:10.1257/jep.25.4.191. (with Stephan Meier and Pedro Rey-Biel)
• Gneezy, Uri (2005). "Deception: The Role of Consequences" (PDF). American Economic Review. 95 (1): 384–394. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.199.6717. doi:10.1257/0002828053828662.
• Erat, Sanjiv; Gneezy, Uri (April 2012). "White Lies" (PDF). Management Science. 58 (4): 723–733. doi:10.1287/mnsc.1110.1449. (with Sanjiv Erat)
• Gneezy, U.; Niederle, M.; Rustichini, A. (August 2003). "Performance in Competitive Environments: Gender Differences" (PDF). Quarterly Journal of Economics. 118 (3): 1049–1074. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.615.5638. doi:10.1162/00335530360698496. (with Muriel Niederle and Aldo Rustichini)
• Gneezy, Uri; Rustichini, Aldo (May 2004). "Gender and Competition at a Young Age" (PDF). American Economic Review. 94 (2): 377–381. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.195.4452. doi:10.1257/0002828041301821. (with Aldo Rustichini)
• "Gender Differences in Competition: Evidence from a Matrilineal and a Patriarchal Society" (PDF). Econometrica. 77 (5): 1637–1664. September 2009. doi:10.3982/ECTA6690. (with Kenneth L. Leonard and John A. List)
• Gneezy, U; Keenan, EA; Gneezy, A (2014). "Avoiding Overhead Aversion in Charity" (PDF). Science. 346 (6209): 632–635. doi:10.1126/science.1253932. PMID 25359974. (with Elizabeth A. Keenan and Ayelet Gneezy)