Alex Imas
Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics and Vasilou Faculty Scholar
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 an Associate 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 an NBER Faculty Research Fellow and a CESifo Research Network Fellow. 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.
Imas鈥� research spans a variety of topics across economics and psychology. He has explored the role of systemic factors and incorrect beliefs in discrimination, the prevalence of behavioral biases amongst expert and non-expert investors, and how to better motivate performance by incorporating psychology into incentives. 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 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. 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.
Selected Publications
"The Impact of Agency on Time and Risk Preferences,"听with A. Gneezy and A. Jaroszewicz. Accepted,听Nature: Communications.
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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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"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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"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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"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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"Realization Effect: Risk-Taking After Realized versus Paper Outcomes,"听American Economic Review,听2016
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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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"Working for the 'Warm Glow': On the Benefits and Limits of Prosocial Incentives."听Journal of Public Economics,听2013.
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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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"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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"Biased By Choice: How Access to Leverage Exacerbates Financial Mistakes,"听with R. Heimer. Revision requested at听Review of Financial Studies
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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. Revision requested at听Journal of Finance
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"Mental Money Laundering: A Motivated Violation of Fungibility,"听with G. Loewenstein and C. K. Morewedge. Revision requested at the听Journal of the European Economic Association
[Abstract] [Draft coming soon]
"Mental Accounting, Similarity, and the Timing of Outcomes,"听with E. Evers. Revision requested at听Psychological Review
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"Waiting to Choose,"听with M. A. Kuhn and V. Mironova. Revision requested,听American Economic Journal: Microeconomics.
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"Undershooting in Asymmetric Resource Dilemmas,"听with C. Hsee, Y. Zeng, and X. Li. Revision requested at听Management Science
[Abstract] [Draft coming soon]
"Preference Reversals Between One-Shot and Repeated Decisions: The Case of Regret,"听with D. Lame and A. Wilson. Revision requested from听Economic Journal.
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"Ownership, Learning, and Beliefs,"听with S. Hartzmark and S. Hirshman.
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"Inaccurate Statistical Discrimination,"听with J. A. Bohren, K. Haggag and D. Pope.
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"Behavioral Food Subsidies,"听with A. Brownback and M. Kuhn.
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"Dynamic Inconsistency in Risky Choice: Evidence from the Lab and Field,"听with R. Heimer, Z. Iliewa and M. Weber.
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"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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"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
What Would Make Americans Eat Better?
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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