Experiment Center
Economic experiments – be it in the lab or the field – provide a valuable method to explore the foundations, mechanisms, and implications of economic decision-making in financial contexts and institutions. Researchers at the SAFE Experiment Center use this method to study key questions, for example, in household finance, corporate governance, or financial markets. Experiments help to identify causal relations, measure “behavioral heterogeneity” (e.g., in economic preferences or beliefs), as well as assist policymakers in evaluating the effects of particular interventions and institutions.
The SAFE Experiment Center is a collaboration between the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE and the Frankfurt Laboratory for Experimental Economic Research FLEX.

Publications
2019 | Peer Effects and Risk Sharing in Experimental Asset MarketsEuropean Economic Review | Sascha Baghestanian, Paul Gortner, Joël van der Weele | Household Finance, Financial Markets, Experiment Center | peer effects, laboratory experiments, risk taking, asset markets | 2019 |
2017 | Bank Rescues and Bailout Expectations: The Erosion of Market Discipline During the Financial CrisisJournal of Financial Economics | Florian Hett, Alexander Schmidt | Financial Intermediation, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | Bailout, Implicit Guarantees, Too-Big-To-Fail, Market Discipline | 2017 |
2017 | Compensation Schemes, Liquidity Provision, and Asset Prices: An Experimental AnalysisExperimental Economics | Sascha Baghestanian, Paul Gortner, Baptiste Massenot | Law and Finance, Experiment Center | compensation, liquidity, experimental asset markets, bubbles | 2017 |
2017 | Incentive-Based Capital RequirementsManagement Science | Christian Eufinger, Andrej Gill | Law and Finance, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | Basel III, capital regulation, compensation, leverage, risk | 2017 |
2017 | Add-On Pricing in Retail Financial Markets and the Fallacies of Consumer EducationReview of Finance | Michael Kosfeld, Ulrich Schüwer | Household Finance, Experiment Center | consumer education,financial literacy, bounded rationality, competition, regulation | 2017 |
2015 | Performance Benefits of Tight ControlThe Journal of Private Equity | Andrej Gill, Nikolai Visnjic | Law and Finance, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | private equity, leveraged buyouts, active shareholders, ownership concentration, corporate governance | 2015 |
2015 | Anchoring in Experimental Asset MarketsJournal of Economic Behavior & Organization | Sascha Baghestanian, Todd B. Walker | Financial Markets, Experiment Center | Experimental Asset Markets, Anchoring, Bubbles | 2015 |
Working Papers
Incentive-Based Capital Requirements | 9 | Law and Finance, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | 2013 | Basel III, capital regulation, compensation, leverage, risk | Jan 2013 | |
Insight Private Equity | Nikolai Visnjic | 23 | Law and Finance, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | 2013 | private equity, leveraged buyouts, active shareholders, corporate restructuring, operational performance | Jan 2013 |
Performance Benefits of Tight Control | Nikolai Visnjic | 24 | Law and Finance, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | 2013 | private equity, leveraged buyouts, active shareholders, ownership concentration, corporate governance | Jan 2013 |
Bank Rescues and Bailout Expectations: The Erosion of Market Discipline During the Financial Crisis | Florian Hett, Alexander Schmidt | 36 | Financial Intermediation, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | 2013 | Bailout, Implicit Guarantees, Too-Big-To-Fail, Market Discipline | Jan 2013 |
Add-On Pricing in Retail Financial Markets and the Fallacies of Consumer Education | Michael Kosfeld | 47 | Household Finance, Experiment Center | 2014 | consumer education,financial literacy, bounded rationality, competition, regulation | Jan 2014 |
Anchoring in Experimental Asset Markets | Sascha Baghestanian, Todd B. Walker | 54 | Financial Markets, Experiment Center | 2014 | Experimental Asset Markets, Anchoring, Bubbles | Jan 2014 |
Measuring Ambiguity Aversion: A Systematic Experimental Approach | 55 | Financial Intermediation, Financial Markets, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | 2014 | ambiguity, valuation discount, experimental economics | Jan 2014 | |
Peer Effects and Risk Sharing in Experimental Asset Markets | Paul Gortner | 67 | Household Finance, Financial Markets, Experiment Center | 2014 | peer effects, laboratory experiments, risk taking, asset markets | Jan 2014 |
Credit Cycles: Experimental Evidence | Sascha Baghestanian | 104 | Macro Finance, Experiment Center | 2015 | - | Jan 2015 |
Compensation Schemes, Liquidity Provision, and Asset Prices: An Experimental Analysis | Paul Gortner | 108 | Law and Finance, Experiment Center | 2015 | compensation, liquidity, experimental asset markets, bubbles | Jan 2015 |
Reputation, Honesty, and Cheating in Informal Milk Markets in India | Markus Kröll, Devesh Rustagi | 134 | Law and Finance, Experiment Center | 2016 | Motivation for honesty, asymmetric information, cheating, informal markets, die game, milk, India | Jan 2016 |
Pushing Through or Slacking Off? Heterogeneity in the Reaction to Rank Feedback | Florian Hett, Felix Schmidt | 203 | Household Finance, Experiment Center | 2018 | heterogeneity, competitiveness; contest; rank feedback, relative performance evaluation | Apr 2018 |
Leverage and Bubbles: Experimental Evidence | Paul Gortner, Baptiste Massenot | 239 | Macro Finance, Experiment Center | 2018 | Dec 2018 | |
Belief Formation and Belief Updating under Ambiguity: Evidence from Experiments | Wenhui Li, Christian Wilde | 251 | Financial Markets, Experiment Center | 2019 | ambiguity, learning strategy, belief updates, non-Bayesian updates, pessimism, laboratory experiments | Jun 2019 |
The Terminator of Social Welfare? The Economic Consequences of Algorithmic Discrimination | Benjamin M. Abdel-Karim, Kevin Bauer, Oliver Hinz, Michael Kosfeld, Nicolas Winfried Pfeuffer | 287 | Financial Intermediation, Experiment Center | 2020 | Algorithmic Discrimination, Artificial Intelligence, Game Theory, Economics, Batch Learning | Sep 2020 |
Motivated Beliefs and the Elderly’s Compliance with COVID-19 Measures | Ferdinand von Siemens | 299 | Law and Finance, Experiment Center | 2021 | motivated beliefs; compliance behavior; age; health; COVID-19 | Jan 2021 |
Policy Papers
Jul 2018 | Measuring Time Inconsistency Using Financial Transaction Data | Andrej Gill, Florian Hett, Johannes Tischer | Household Finance, Experiment Center | financial transaction data, financial decision-making, time inconsistency, present bias | Jul 2018 |
Sep 2017 | Undermined Market Discipline: The Role of Bank Rescues and Bailout Expectations | Florian Hett, Johannes Kasinger | Financial Intermediation, Experiment Center | bailout, market discipline, financial institutions, financial crisis, banks | Sep 2017 |
Research Projects
Publication Count | ||||||
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Experiment Center | Developing Reliable and Globally Valid Measures for Economic Preferences – Worldwide Testing of the Global Preference Survey Module | Michael Kosfeld, Zahra Sharafi-Avarzaman, Maíra Sontag González, Na Zou | 2021 | 238101 | 1 | |
Financial Markets, Experiment Center | (Tho)roughly Explained: The Impact of Algorithmic Transparency on Beliefs and Human Decision Making | Kevin Bauer | 2020 | 232301 | 1 | |
Household Finance, Experiment Center | Social Identity Bias in Information Processing and Information Demand | Kevin Bauer, Yan Chen, Florian Hett, Michael Kosfeld | 2020 | 232405 | 1 | |
Household Finance, Experiment Center | Experiential Learning Through FinTech Applications | Andrej Gill, Florian Hett | 2020 | experiential learning, goal setting, personal finance management, financial literacy, overconfidence | 232404 | 1 |
Household Finance, Experiment Center | Collective Action and Institution Formation - The Role of Group Size | Julian Detemple, Michael Kosfeld | 2020 | 232403 | 1 | |
Household Finance, Experiment Center | Moral (Mis)Behavior in the Era of Big Data | Victor Klockmann, Marie-Claire Villeval, Alicia von Schenk | 2020 | 232402 | 1 | |
Household Finance, Experiment Center | Moral Decisions and the Externality of AI Usage | Victor Klockmann, Marie-Claire Villeval, Alicia von Schenk | 2020 | 232401 | 1 | |
Financial Intermediation, Experiment Center | Digitalization of the Financial System | Kevin Bauer, Oliver Hinz | 2020 | Digital economics; Artificial intelligence; Human machine interaction; Algorithmic Unfairness; Hybrid human-machine behavior; Algorithms; Machine Learning, Decision Making; | 123101 | 1 |
Financial Intermediation, Experiment Center | Mirror, Mirror in the Wall: Algorithmic Assessments and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies | Kevin Bauer, Andrej Gill | 2020 | 1 | ||
Financial Markets, Experiment Center | Experimental Asset Markets - Price Formation in the Presence of Ambiguity | Wenhui Li, Peter Ockenfels, Christian Wilde | 2019 | Experimental asset markets, information transmission, price formation, ambiguity | 133102 | 1 |
Household Finance, Experiment Center | Using Behavioral Experiments to Capture Time Inconsistency in Households Financial Decision Making | Andrej Gill, Florian Hett | 2019 | financial mistakes, transaction data, household finance, time-inconsistency, present bias, time preferences, online experiment, preference heterogeneity | 21337 | 1 |
Financial Intermediation, Experiment Center | In or Out? In-group Bias in Diverse Social Environments | Kevin Bauer, Florian Hett | 2018 | Overlapping group affiliations; Pro-social behavior; Ingroup bias; Diversity management | 1 | |
Household Finance, Experiment Center | Heterogeneity in the Sensitivity to Dynamic Incentives | Florian Hett, Felix Schmidt | 2018 | Peer Effects, Laboratory Experiments, Experimental Finance, Tournaments, Behavioral Finance, Rank Incentives | 21329 | 1 |
Law and Finance, Experiment Center | Gender Diversity, Decision Rules, and the Risk Appetite of Teams | Renée Adams, Andreas Grunewald, Ferdinand von Siemens | 2017 | Corporate Boards, Gender Diversity, Risk Taking, Banking, Teams | 21223 | 1 |
Household Finance, Experiment Center | Financial Decision Making and Present Bias | Andrej Gill, Florian Hett, Johannes Tischer | 2017 | financial mistakes, transaction data, household finance, time-inconsistency, present bias, time preferences, online experiment, randomized controlled trial, preference heterogeneity, commitment devices, nudging | 21321 | 1 |
Financial Intermediation, Experiment Center | Measuring Time Inconsistency by Using Bank Account Data | Andrej Gill, Florian Hett | 2016 | financial mistakes, transaction data, household finance, time-inconsistency, present bias, time preferences | 21640 | 1 |
Household Finance, Experiment Center | Financial Networks in the Field | Paul Gortner, Joël van der Weele | 2016 | 21650 | 1 | |
Financial Markets, Experiment Center | Experimental Asset Markets – Regulation and Design of Fragmented Markets | Peter Ockenfels, Christian Wilde | 2016 | 21620 | 1 | |
Financial Intermediation, Experiment Center | Financial Interactions in the Presence of Ambiguity | Wenhui Li, Peter Ockenfels, Christian Wilde | 2016 | 21650 | 1 | |
Financial Intermediation, Law and Finance, Financial Markets, Macro Finance, Experiment Center | Capital Requirements and Financial Stability: Experimental Evidence | Paul Gortner, Baptiste Massenot | 2016 | 21650 | 1 | |
Financial Intermediation, Experiment Center | Banking Structure and Dynamics of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises | Douglas Cumming, Christian Eufinger, Andrej Gill, David Heller, Jan Krzyzanowski, Uwe Walz | 2016 | 21640 | 1 | |
Macro Finance, Experiment Center | Fragility of Credit Markets | 2014 | Experimental Loan Markets, Gambler's Fallacy, House Money Effect, Break Even Effect | 11528 | 1 | |
Household Finance, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | Non-Standard Preferences and Financial Decision Making | Paul Gortner | 2014 | Social Preferences, Financial Institutions, Incentives | 11223 | 1 |
Financial Markets, Experiment Center | Excessive Risk Taking, Compensation Schemes and Financial Market Stability | Paul Gortner | 2014 | Compensation Schemes, Bubbles, Risk Seeking, Liquidity, Experimental Asset Markets | 11226 | 1 |
Financial Markets, Experiment Center | Non-Standard Preferences in Experimental Asset Markets | Matthias Blonski, Paul Gortner | 2014 | laboratory experiments, experimental asset markets, peer effects, social preferences | 11231 | 1 |
Law and Finance, Experiment Center | Corruption in the Lab and in the Field: Evidence from a Market for Credence Goods | Markus Kröll | 2014 | Corruption, economic experiments, India, Milkmen | 11228 | 1 |
Financial Intermediation, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | Experimental Studies on Ambiguity and Ambiguity Aversion | Jan Pieter Krahnen | 2013 | ambiguity, ambiguity aversion, valuation discount, experimental economics | 11125 | 1 |
Financial Intermediation, Systemic Risk Lab, Transparency Lab, Experiment Center | Corporate Governance in Banks | Marie Lalanne, Uwe Walz | 2013 | Corporate Governance, Financial Institutions, Management Compensation, Moral Hazard, Ownership Structure, Risk Shifting | 11221 | 1 |