Gary Charness
Professor of Economics, UCSB

My research involves experimental and behavioral economics.  I am a member of several editorial boards and I am a main editor at Games and Economic Behavior.   I began the Ph.D. program at UC Berkeley at the age of 41 (was initially rejected there) and had no publications in print on my 50th birthday.  So it may not be too late ...

I played poker semi-professionally, was an options trader, an arbitrator, and a real-estate broker.  I play softball, go white-water rafting (I was a guide), and ski. 

I have been married since 1991.  Three children: Jacob (1989), Emma (2004), and Benjamin (2004).


Current cv

Google Scholar page

RePEc ranking

RePEc ranking - Experimental


Publications

Categories (alphabetical order both between and within categories)

Behavioral Interventions
Communication
Delegation and Responsibility
Experimental Labor
Game Theory and Networks
Gender
Group decision-making
Individual decision-making
Methodology
Miscellaneous
Social Preferences


Behavioral interventions


Field and Online Experiments on Procrastination and Willpower

A Group-based Wellness Intervention in the Laboratory

Incentives to Exercise

Letting Down the Team?
Evidence of Social Effects of Team Incentives


Communication


Bare Promises

Choosing and Not Choosing with and without Communication: Experimental Results on Contract Design and Selection

Continuous Time and Communication in a Public-goods Experiment

Deception: The Role of Guilt

Expressed Preferences and Behavior in Experimental Games


Let's Talk: How Communication Affects Contract Design

Participation

Promises and Partnership

Promises in Contract Design

Self-serving Cheap Talk and Credibility: A Test of Aumann’s Conjecture

Truth or Consequences: An Experiment

What Makes Cheap Talk Effective? Experimental Evidence
 

Delegation and Responsibility

The Hidden Advantage of Delegation: Pareto-improvements in a Gift-exchange Game
 
Responsibility and Effort in an Experimental Labor Market

The Role of Responsibility in Strategic Risk-taking

Social Comparisons in Wage Delegation: Experimental Evidence


Experimental Labor


Attribution and Reciprocity in an Experimental Labor Market

Changes in the Fair Employment Contract: Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

Competition and the Ratchet Effect

Do Labour Market Conditions Affect Gift Exchange? Some Experimental Evidence

The Hidden Advantage of Delegation: Pareto-improvements in a Gift-exchange Game

Intention and Stochastic Outcomes: An Experimental Study

Let’s Talk: How Communication Affects Contract Design


Merit Pay and Wage Compression with Productivity Differences and Uncertainty

Optimal Contracts with Team Production and Hidden Information: An Experiment

Pay Inequality, Pay Secrecy, and Effort: Theory and Evidence

Promises in Contract Design


Renewable Dismissal Barriers
, Job Security, and Long-term Investment

Responsibility and Effort in an Experimental Labor Market

Social Comparisons in Wage Delegation: Experimental Evidence

When are Layoffs Acceptable? Evidence from a Quasi-Experiment

When is Employee Retaliation Acceptable at Work? Evidence from Quasi- Experiments


Game theory and Networks

Bargaining and Network Structure: An Experiment

Endogenous Transfers in the Prisoner’s Dilemma Game: An Experimental Test of Cooperation and Coordination

An Experiment on Nash Implementation

Experimental Games on Networks: Underpinnings of Behavior and Equilibrium Selection

Forward Induction and Entry Deterrence: An Experiment


Group Play in Games and the Role of Consent in Network Formation

Identities, Selection, and Contributions in a Public-goods Game

Self Confidence and Strategic Behavior


Self-serving Cheap Talk and Credibility: A Test of Aumann’s Conjecture

Social Surplus Determines Cooperation Rates in the One-shot Prisoner’s Dilemma



Gender

Complexity in Risk Elicitation May Affect the Conclusions: A Demonstration Using Gender Differences

Gender Differences in Cooperation with Group Membership

Strong Evidence for Gender Differences in Risk-taking




Group decision-making

Group Play in Games and the Role of Consent in Network Formation

Groups make Better Self-Interested Decisions

Individual and Group Decision Making under Risk: An Experimental Study of Bayesian Updating and Violations of First-order Stochastic Dominance  

On The Conjunction Fallacy in Probability Judgment: New Experimental Evidence Regarding Linda



Individual decision-making

Ambiguity Attitudes: An Experimental Investigation

Complexity in Risk Elicitation May Affect the Conclusions: A Demonstration Using Gender Differences


Confirmation Bias with Motivated Beliefs
 
Creativity and Financial Incentives

Field and Online Experiments on Procrastination and Willpower


The Origin of the Winner’s Curse: A Laboratory Study
 

Portfolio Choice and Risk Attitudes

When Optimal Choices Feel Wrong: A Laboratory Study of Bayesian Updating, Complexity, and Affect


Methodology


Complexity in Risk Elicitation May Affect the Conclusions: A Demonstration Using Gender Differences

Comprehension and Risk Elicitation in the Field: Evidence from Rural Senegal


Experimental Methods: Between-subject and Within-subject Design

Experimental Methods: Eliciting Risk Preferences

Experimental Methods: Measuring Effort in Economics Experiments


Experimental Methods: Pay one or Pay All

Experimental Methods: When and Why Contextual Instructions May be Important

Extra-Laboratory Experiments: Extending the Reach of Experimental Economics


Hot vs. Cold: Sequential Responses in Simple Experimental Games

How Robust is Laboratory Gift Exchange?

The Strategy versus the Direct-response Method: A First Survey of Experimental Comparisons



Miscellaneous


Bargaining Efficiency and Screening: An Experimental Investigation

Behavioral Economics and Experimental Economics: Cousins but not Twins

Cooperation and Competition in Intergenerational Experiments in the Field and the Laboratory

Deterrence, Expected Cost, Uncertainty and Voting: Experimental Evidence

An Experimental Test of Inequality and Risk-sharing Arrangements


From the Lab to the Real World

Individual Behavior and Group Membership

An Investment Game with Third-party Intervention


Minimum Advertised-Price Policy Rules and Retailer Behavior: An Experiment

Optimal Contracts with Team Production and Hidden Information: An Experiment

Reputation, Honesty, and Efficiency with Insider Information: An Experiment

Starting Small towards Voluntary Formation of Efficient Large Groups in Public Goods Provision

A Test of the Modigliani-Miller Invariance Theorem and Arbitrage in Experimental Asset Markets


Social Preferences


Altruism, Fairness, and Reciprocity in a Gift-Exchange Experiment: An Encompassing Approach

Attribution and Reciprocity in an Experimental Labor Market


Charity in the Laboratory: Matching, Competition, and Group Membership

The Dark Side of Competition for Status


Do Labour Market Conditions Affect Gift Exchange? Some Experimental Evidence


Expressed Preferences and Behavior in Experimental Games

How Robust is Laboratory Gift Exchange?

Inducing Norms in Laboratory Allocation Choices

Intention and Stochastic Outcomes: An Experimental Study

An Investment Game with Third-party Intervention


Preserving Rank as a Social Norm

Relative Payoffs and Happiness: An Experimental Study

A Restaurant Experiment in Charitable Contributions


Self-serving Biases: Evidence from an Experimental Labor Market

Social Distance and Reciprocity: The Internet vs. the Laboratory

Trust and Trustworthiness Reputations in an Investment Game


Understanding Social Preferences with Simple Tests


What’s in a Name? Anonymity and Social Distance in Dictator and Ultimatum Games