Do ‘Regret Lotteries’ 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, Economics and Applied AI 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’ 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
- Applied AI
Selected Publications
SELECTED PAPERS
"Systemic Discrimination: Theory and Measurement," with J. A. Bohren and P. Hull. Accepted at Quarterly Journal of Economics.
[Paper]
"Dynamic Inconsistency in Risky Choice: Evidence from the Lab and Field," with R. Heimer, Z. Iliewa and M. Weber. American Economic Review, 2024.
[Paper]
"Inaccurate Statistical Discrimination: An Identification Problem," with J. A. Bohren, K. Haggag and D. Pope. Review of Economics and Statistics, 2024.
[Paper]
"Superiority-Seeking and the Preference for Exclusion," with K. Madarasz. Review of Economic Studies, 2023.
[Paper] [Media Summaries: Chicago Booth Review, The Equation]
"Selling Fast and Buying Slow: Heuristics and Trading Performance of Institutional Investors," with K. Akepanidtaworn, R. Di Mascio, and L. Schmidt. Journal of Finance, 2023. (Lead Article)
[Paper] [Media Summaries: Bloomberg (Matt Levine), Bloomberg (Barry Ritholtz), Barron's, The Economist]
"On the Role of Similarity in Mental Accounting and Hedonic Editing," with E. Evers and C. Kang. Psychological Review, 2021.
[Paper]
"Ownership, Learning, and Beliefs," with S. Hartzmark and S. Hirshman. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2021.
[Paper] [Media Summaries: Chicago Booth Review]
"Waiting to Choose: The Role of Deliberation in Intertemporal Choice," with M. A. Kuhn and V. Mironova. American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2021.
[Paper]
"The Dynamics of Discrimination: Theory and Evidence," with J. A. Bohren and M. Rosenberg. American Economic Review, 2019. (Lead Article)
[Paper]
"Realization Effect: Risk-Taking After Realized versus Paper Outcomes," American Economic Review, 2016.
[Paper] [Online Appendix] [Metadata]
"Working for the 'Warm Glow': On the Benefits and Limits of Prosocial Incentives." Journal of Public Economics, 2013.
[Paper]
WORKING PAPERS
"Underreporting of AI use: The role of social desirability bias," with Y. Ling.
[Working Paper]
"A Cognitive Foundation for Perceiving Uncertainty," with J. A. Bohren, J. Hascher, M. Ungeheuer, and M. Weber.
[Working Paper]
"In Their Shoes: Empathy Through Information," with M. Andries, L. Bursztyn, T. Chaney, and M. Djourelova. Revision requested at Quarterly Journal of Economics.
[Working Paper]
"Over- and Underreaction to Information," with C. Ba and J. A. Bohren. Revision requested at Quarterly Journal of Economics.
[Working Paper]
"The Impact of Joint Versus Separate Prediction Mode on Forecasting Accuracy: The Role of Mental Models," with M. Jung, S. Saccardo, and J. Vosgerau. Revision requested at Management Science.
[Working Paper]
"Time Preferences and Food Choice," with A. Brownback and M. Kuhn. Revision requested at Journal of Public Economics.
[Working Paper]
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
"Limits on Regret as a Tool for Incentive Design," with F. Araujo and A. Wilson. Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, 2024.
[Paper]
"A Clean Slate: Adapting the Realization Effect to Online Gambling and its Effectiveness in People with Gambling Problems," with K. Zhang and L. Clark. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 2024.
[Paper]
"How Framing Influences Strategic Interactions," with C. Hsee and X. Li. Management Science, 2024.
[Paper]
"Can’t wait to pay: The desire for goal closure increases impatience for costs," with A. Roberts and A. Fishbach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2023.
[Paper]
"The Psychology of Negative-Sum Behavior in Strategic Interactions," with C. Hsee, Y. Zeng, and X. Li. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2023.
[Paper]
"Behavioral Food Subsidies," with A. Brownback and M. Kuhn. Review of Economics and Statistics, 2023.
[Paper]
"Biased By Choice: How Financial Constraints Can Reduce Financial Mistakes," with R. Heimer. Review of Financial Studies, 2021.
[Paper]
"Bounded Rationality in Strategic Decisions: Undershooting in a Resource Pool-Choice Dilemma," with C. Hsee, Y. Zeng, and X. Li. Management Science, 2021.
[Paper]
"Mental Money Laundering: A Motivated Violation of Fungibility," with G. Loewenstein and C. K. Morewedge. Journal of the European Economic Association, 2021.
[Paper] [Media Summaries: Chicago Booth Review ]
"Are Non-Contingent Incentives More Effective in Motivating New Behavior? Evidence from the Field," with D. Schwartz and A. Cordova. Games and Economic Behavior, 2021.
[Paper]
"The Impact of Agency on Time and Risk Preferences," with A. Gneezy and A. Jaroszewicz. Nature: Communications, 2020.
[Paper]
"Opting In to Prosocial Incentives," with D. Schwartz, E. A. Keenan and A. Gneezy. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 2019.
[Paper] [Online Appendix]
"The Language of Discrimination: Using Experimental versus Observational Data," with J. A. Bohren and M. Rosenberg. American Economic Association: Papers and Proceedings, 2018.
[Paper]
"Is Altruism Sensitive to Scope? The Role of Tangibility," with G. Loewenstein. American Economic Association: Papers and Proceedings, 2018.
[Paper]
"Do People Anticipate Loss Aversion?" with S. Sadoff and A. Samek. Management Science, 2016.
[Paper]
"Conscience Accounting: Emotion Dynamics in Social Behavior," with U. Gneezy and K. Madarasz. Management Science, 2014.
[Paper]
"The Materazzi Effect and the Strategic Use of Anger," with U. Gneezy. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2014.
[Paper]
"Paying to be Nice: Costly Prosocial Behavior and Consistency," with A. Gneezy, L.D. Nelson, M.I. Norton and A. Brown. Management Science, 2012.
[Paper]
SURVEYS AND BOOK CHAPTERS
"Lab in the Field: Measuring Preferences in the Wild," with U. Gneezy. In Handbook of Field Experiments, Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo, editors, 2017.
[Paper]
"Experimental Methods: Eliciting Risk Preferences," with G. Charness and U. Gneezy. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2013.
[Paper]
OTHER RESEARCH
"Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor-1 Regulates Integrin avß3 Expression and Autocrine TGFß Signaling," with B. S. Pedjora, L. E. Kang, P. Carmeliet and A. M. Bernstein. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 2009. [Paper]
"EEG-based Method for Biometric Identity Confirmation," with M. Milgramm. U.S. Patent No. 7,594,122. [Patent Document]
"EEG-based Method for Real Time Attitude Assessment," with M. Milgramm. U.S. Patent No. 7,570,991. [Patent Document]
"EEG-based Method for Attention and Productivity Monitoring," with M. Milgramm. U.S. Patent No. 7,574,254. [Patent Document]
2024 - 2025 Course Schedule
| Number | Course Title | Quarter |
|---|---|---|
| 38918 | Behavioral Economics - Theory & the Lab | 2025 (Spring) |
Get Insights from Alex Imas in Chicago Booth Review
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