Do 鈥楻egret Lotteries鈥� Work?
Research assessed their usefulness for situations that involve repeated choices, such as exercise.
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Biography
Alex Imas is the Roger L. and Rachel M. Goetz Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics and a Vasilou Faculty Scholar at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he has taught Negotiations and Behavioral Economics. He is a Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Applied AI and the Human Capital & Economic Opportunity, an NBER Faculty Research Associate, and a CESifo Research Network Fellow. He is also an Associate Editor at the Journal of the European Economic Association and on the editorial board of Psychological Science.
Alex Imas studies behavioral economics with a focus on cognition and mental representation in dynamic decision-making. His research explores topics related to choice under uncertainty, applied AI, discrimination, and how people learn from information. Professor Imas鈥� work utilizes a variety of methods, including lab experiments, field experiments, analysis of observational data and theoretical modeling. His research has been published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Finance, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Management Science, among others.
Imas is the recipient of the 2023 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the Review of Financial Studies Rising Scholar Award, the New Investigator Award from the Behavioral Science and Policy Association, the Hillel Einhorn New Investigator Award from the Society of Judgment and Decision Making, the Distinguished CESifo Affiliate Award, and the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship.
Imas was born in Bender, Moldova. Previously, he was the William S. Dietrich II Assistant Professor of Behavioral Economics at Carnegie Mellon University, where he taught Behavioral Economics and Human Judgment and Decision Making. He did his PhD in economics at the University of California, San Diego and earned a BA from Northwestern University. Prior to graduate school, Imas helped found a startup and co-authored several patents as part of its intellectual property strategy.
Academic Areas
- Behavioral Science
Selected Publications
SELECTED PAPERS
"Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement,"听with J. A. Bohren and P. Hull. Accepted at听Quarterly Journal of Economics.
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"Dynamic Inconsistency in Risky Choice: Evidence from the Lab and Field,"听with R. Heimer, Z. Iliewa and M. Weber.听American Economic Review, 2024.
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"Inaccurate Statistical Discrimination: An Identification Problem," with J. A. Bohren, K. Haggag and D. Pope. Review of Economics and Statistics, 2024.
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"Superiority-Seeking and the Preference for Exclusion," with K. Madarasz. Review of Economic Studies, 2023.
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"Selling Fast and Buying Slow: Heuristics and Trading Performance of Institutional Investors,"听with K. Akepanidtaworn, R. Di Mascio, and L. Schmidt.听Journal of Finance, 2023.听(Lead Article)
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"On the Role of Similarity in Mental Accounting and Hedonic Editing,"听with E. Evers and C. Kang.听Psychological Review,听2021.
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"Ownership, Learning, and Beliefs,"听with S. Hartzmark and S. Hirshman.听Quarterly Journal of Economics,听2021.
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"Waiting to Choose: The Role of Deliberation in Intertemporal Choice,"听with M. A. Kuhn and V. Mironova.听American Economic Journal: Microeconomics,听2021.
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"The Dynamics of Discrimination: Theory and Evidence,"听with J. A. Bohren and M. Rosenberg.听American Economic Review, 2019. (Lead Article)
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"Realization Effect: Risk-Taking After Realized versus Paper Outcomes,"听American Economic Review,听2016.
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"Working for the 'Warm Glow': On the Benefits and Limits of Prosocial Incentives."听Journal of Public Economics,听2013.
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WORKING PAPERS
"Underreporting of AI use: The role of social desirability bias,"听with Y. Ling.
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"A Cognitive Foundation for Perceiving Uncertainty,"听with J. A. Bohren, J. Hascher, M. Ungeheuer, and M. Weber.
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"In Their Shoes: Empathy Through Information,"听with M. Andries, L. Bursztyn, T. Chaney, and M. Djourelova. Revision requested at听Quarterly Journal of Economics.
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"Over- and Underreaction to Information,"听with C. Ba and J. A. Bohren. Revision requested at听Quarterly Journal of Economics.
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"The Impact of Joint Versus Separate Prediction Mode on Forecasting Accuracy: The Role of Mental Models,"听with M. Jung, S. Saccardo, and J. Vosgerau. Revision requested at听Management Science.
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"Time Preferences and Food Choice,"听with A. Brownback and M. Kuhn. Revision requested at听Journal of Public Economics.
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OTHER PUBLICATIONS
"Limits on Regret as a Tool for Incentive Design,"听with F. Araujo and A. Wilson.听Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics,听2024.
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"A Clean Slate: Adapting the Realization Effect to Online Gambling and its Effectiveness in People with Gambling Problems,"听with K. Zhang and L. Clark.听Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 2024.
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"How Framing Influences Strategic Interactions,"听with C. Hsee and X. Li.听Management Science, 2024.
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"Can鈥檛 wait to pay: The desire for goal closure increases impatience for costs,"听with A. Roberts and A. Fishbach.听Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2023.
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"The Psychology of Negative-Sum Behavior in Strategic Interactions,"听with C. Hsee, Y. Zeng, and X. Li.听Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2023.
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"Behavioral Food Subsidies,"听with A. Brownback and M. Kuhn.听Review of Economics and Statistics, 2023.
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"Biased By Choice: How Financial Constraints Can Reduce Financial Mistakes,"听with R. Heimer.听Review of Financial Studies,听2021.
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"Bounded Rationality in Strategic Decisions: Undershooting in a Resource Pool-Choice Dilemma,"听with C. Hsee, Y. Zeng, and X. Li.听Management Science, 2021.
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"Mental Money Laundering: A Motivated Violation of Fungibility,"听with G. Loewenstein and C. K. Morewedge.听Journal of the European Economic Association, 2021.
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"Are Non-Contingent Incentives More Effective in Motivating New Behavior? Evidence from the Field,"听with D. Schwartz and A. Cordova.听Games and Economic Behavior,听2021.
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"The Impact of Agency on Time and Risk Preferences,"听with A. Gneezy and A. Jaroszewicz.听Nature: Communications, 2020.
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"Opting In to Prosocial Incentives,"听with D. Schwartz, E. A. Keenan and A. Gneezy.听Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,听2019.
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"The Language of Discrimination: Using Experimental versus Observational Data,"听with J. A. Bohren and M. Rosenberg.听American Economic Association: Papers and Proceedings,听2018.
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"Is Altruism Sensitive to Scope? The Role of Tangibility,"听with G. Loewenstein.听American Economic Association: Papers and Proceedings,听2018.
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"Do People Anticipate Loss Aversion?"听with S. Sadoff and A. Samek.听Management Science,听2016.
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"Conscience Accounting: Emotion Dynamics in Social Behavior,"听with U. Gneezy and K. Madarasz.听Management Science,听2014.
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"The Materazzi Effect and the Strategic Use of Anger,"听with U. Gneezy.听Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,听2014.
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"Paying to be Nice: Costly Prosocial Behavior and Consistency,"听with A. Gneezy, L.D. Nelson, M.I. Norton and A. Brown.听Management Science,听2012.
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SURVEYS AND BOOK CHAPTERS
"Lab in the Field: Measuring Preferences in the Wild,"听with U. Gneezy. In听Handbook of Field Experiments,听Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, editors, 2017.
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"Experimental Methods: Eliciting Risk Preferences,"听with G. Charness and U. Gneezy.听Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2013.
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OTHER RESEARCH
"Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 Regulates Integrin av脽3 Expression and Autocrine TGF脽 Signaling,"听with B. S. Pedjora, L. E. Kang, P. Carmeliet and A. M. Bernstein.听Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2009. []
"EEG-based Method for Biometric Identity Confirmation,"听with M. Milgramm.听U.S. Patent No. 7,594,122.听[]
"EEG-based Method for Real Time Attitude Assessment,"听with M. Milgramm.听U.S. Patent No. 7,570,991.听[]
"EEG-based Method for Attention and Productivity Monitoring,"听with M. Milgramm.听U.S. Patent No. 7,574,254.听[]
2024 - 2025 Course Schedule
| Number | Course Title | Quarter |
|---|---|---|
| Behavioral Economics - Theory & the Lab | 2025 (Spring) |
Get Insights from Alex Imas in Chicago Booth Review
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Demand may be the key to healthier diets.
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Why Paying Off Your Debt Sooner May Cost You More
People are just as impatient when it comes to paying money as receiving it.
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