Empirical Microeconomics

The Department of Empirical Microeconomics is particularly concerned with questions in the fields of behavioural economics, labour economics, personnel economics and economics of education. These topics are investigated based on microeconometric methods, laboratory experiments and randomized controlled trials (RCTs). One research focus is on social comparisons with regard to income and consumption, the determinants of individual comparison intensities and their behavioural effects. The role of an individual's social environment for his or her preferences and decisions is the focus of research on social identity, cooperation and peer effects, applied for example to the workplace and educational context. Another research interest of the department is public economics in a broader sense. 

Mario Mechtel's work has been published in numerous international peer-reviewed journals, including Economic Journal, European Economic Review, Experimental Economics, and Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization.

Mario Mechtel heads the Leuphana Interdisciplinary Behavioral Research Laboratory together with David Loschelder and Jacob Hörisch.