Thomas F. Epper
{#firstname}.{#lastname}[at]cnrs.fr

I am a Research Director at the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research; LEM - UMR 9221), a Full Professor of Economics at the IÉSEG School of Management (Lille & Paris) and Co-Director of the iRisk Research Center on Risk and Uncertainty, France. Additionally, I am an external member of the Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI), Copenhagen (Denmark) and a network member of the Risk, Insurance and Savings Laboratory (RISLαβ).

My research expertise lies in the realm of decision-making under risk and uncertainty, intertemporal choice, and attitudes towards inequality and redistribution. Melding economic theory with quantiative methods, I delve into a diverse range of data, from broad population experiments to detailed administrative registers to financial, betting and insurance markets. As an educator, I have taught courses in decision theory, information economics, health economics, programming methods, empirical methods, data analytics, as well as on preference elicitation and survey methodology.

• The Fundamental Properties, the Stability, and the Predictive Ability of Distributional Preferences, with Ernst Fehr and Julien Senn.
  • Keywords: Other-regarding preferences, Bayesian nonparametrics, machine learning.

• Beliefs about Inequality and the Nature of Support for Redistribution, with Ernst Fehr, Aljosha Henkel and Julien Senn.
  • Keywords: Information intervention, redistribution, inequality aversion.

• An Experimental Test of Integrative and Comparative Decision Making, with Cédric Müller and Philipp Zahn.
  • Keywords: Rank-dependent utility, salience, regret theory.

• Bounded Rationality in Risky Choice over Money and Effort, with Alexander Koch and Julia Nafziger.
  • Keywords: Asset integration, description invariance, reference dependence, choice bracketing.

• The Missing Type: Where are the Inequality Averse (Students)?, with Ernst Fehr and Julien Senn.
  • working paper (incl. appendix)
  • Keywords: Social preference, inequality aversion, type heterogeneity

• Risk in Time: The Intertwined Nature of Risk Taking and Time Discounting, Journal of the European Economic Association, forthcoming, 2023, with Helga Fehr-Duda.
  • published version; appendix (with an overview of probability weighting functions)
  • replication package
  • an older paper containing parts of the theory results: The Missing Link - Unifying Risk Taking and Time Discounting
  • a version focusing on insurance demand: A Tale of Two Tails: Explaining the Underinsurance Puzzle
  • Keywords: Risk preferences, time preferences, interaction effects, increasing risk tolerance, hyperbolic discounting, preference for resolution of uncertainty, asset markets, insurance.
• Other-Regarding Preferences and Redistributive Politics, with Ernst Fehr and Julien Senn.
  • working paper (incl. appendix)
  • Keywords: Bayesian nonparametrics, social preference heterogeneity, inequality aversion, altruism, redistribution, voting.
• Parenting Values and the Intergenerational Transmission of Time Preferences, European Economic Review, 148, 2022, with Anne Ardila Brenøe.
  • published version (incl. appendix)
  • Keywords: Parenting style, parental involvement, patience, preference transmission, socio-economic status, family background.
• Preferences Predict Who Commits Crime Among Young Men, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), 119(6), 2022, with Ernst Fehr, Kristoffer Balle Hvidberg, Claus Thustrup Kreiner, Søren Leth-Petersen and Gregers Nytoft Rasmussen.
  • published version; appendix
  • Keywords: Risk preferences, time preferences, social preferences, delinquency, criminal offences, external validity.
• Time Discounting and Wealth Inequality, American Economic Review, 110(4), pp.1177-1205, 2020, with Ernst Fehr, Helga Fehr-Duda, Claus Thustrup Kreiner, David Dreyer Lassen, Søren Leth-Petersen and Gregers Nytoft Rasmussen.
  • published version; appendix
  • code and data
  • Keywords: Wealth inequality, savings behavior, patience, household finance, external validity.
• The Uncertainty Triangle: Uncovering Heterogeneity in Attitudes Towards Uncertainty, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 60(2), pp.125-156, 2020, with Dan Burghart and Ernst Fehr.
  • published version; supplementary material
  • Keywords: Preference heterogeneity, expectation maximization (EM) algorithm, finite mixture model, ambiguity, Ellsberg urn.
• Risk Preferences Are Not Time Preferences: Balancing on a Budget Line: Comment, American Economic Review, 105(7), pp.2261-2271, 2015, with Helga Fehr-Duda.
  • published version; appendix with details on intertemporal risk aversion, etc
  • Keywords: Intertemporal diversification, risk preference, time preferences, intertemporal risk aversion, rank-dependent utility.
• Income Expectations, Limited Liquidity, and Anomalies in Intertemporal Choice.
  • working paper (incl. appendix)
  • Keywords: Hyperbolic discounting, magnitude effect, sign effect, time inconsistency.
• Probability and Risk: Foundations and Economic Implications of Probability-Dependent Risk Preferences, Annual Review of Economics, 4, pp.567-593, 2012, with Helga Fehr-Duda.
  • published version; technical appendix outlining an algorithm to nonparametrically estimate money and probability weights
  • Keywords: Underdiversification, small-scale insurance, equity premium puzzle, probability weighting, rank-dependent utility, disappointment aversion.
• Viewing the Future through a Warped Lens: Why Uncertainty Generates Hyperbolic Discounting, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 43(3), pp.169-203, 2011, with Adrian Bruhin and Helga Fehr-Duda.
  • published version (incl. appendix)
  • previous version titled Uncertainty Breeds Decreasing Impatience with additional results on non-standard time discounting
  • Keywords: Present bias, probability weighting, risk preferences, time preferences, sub-additivity in intertemporal choice.
• Risk and Rationality: The Effect of Mood and Decision Rules on Probability Weighting, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 78(1-2), pp.14-21, 2011, with Adrian Bruhin, Helga Fehr-Duda and Renate Schubert.
  • published version
  • Keywords: Preference stability, risk preferences, mood, emotions.
• Risk and Rationality: Uncovering Heterogeneity in Probability Distortion, Econometrica, 78(4), pp.1375-1412, 2010, with Adrian Bruhin and Helga Fehr-Duda.
  • published version; appendix
  • Keywords: Finite mixture model, risk preference heterogeneity, probability weighting, prospect theory, expected utility theory.
• Rationality on the Rise; Why Relative Risk Aversion Increases with Stake Size, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 40(2), pp.147-180, 2010, with Adrian Bruhin, Helga Fehr-Duda and Renate Schubert.
  • published version (incl. appendix)
  • Keywords: Stake effects, increasing relative risk aversion, utility curvature, probability distortion.

• Experimental Validation of Common Patience Survey Measures, Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality, Technical Report, 2019, with Ernst Fehr, Claus Thustrup Kreiner, Søren Leth-Petersen and Gregers Nytoft Rasmussen.
  • Keywords: Time preferences, survey questions.
  • technical report
• Description of the Aarhus Survey, Aarhus University, Technical Report, 2018, with Alexander Koch and Julia Nafziger.
  • technical report
  • Keywords: Goal setting, risk preferences, survey design.
• Energy-Using Durables: The Role of Time Discounting in Investment Decisions, Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE), Publication No. 290417, 2011, with Helga Fehr-Duda and Renate Schubert.
  • final report
  • Keywords: Energy efficiency, time discounting, hazard rate, liquidity constraints.

• CAPABLE, EU Horizon grant, Co-Investigator, 2023-2026, $$$.
• Welcoming Talents, Métropole Européenne de Lille (MEL), Principal investigator, 2021-2024, EUR 150,000.
• Chair of Excellence, Project: Identifying Behavioral Barriers to Tackling Climate Change, I-Site, 2021-2023, EUR 95,000, with Loïc Berger, Fabrice Le Lec, Uyanga Turmunkh and Vincent Théroude.
• Risk, Betrayal, and Inequality: Decomposing the Trust Game, Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO), 2020-2022, EUR 372,250, with Alexander Cappelen, Bertil Tungodden and Ferdinand Vieider.
• The Role of the Intestinal Microbiome in Explaining Economic Preferences, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) Spark grant, Principal investigator (joint with Christian Biener, University of St. Gallen), 2020-2021, CHF 98,300, with Andrew Macpherson (Inselspital Bern, project partner).
• Identifying Risk and Ambiguity Preferences Free from Context, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Principal investigator (joint with Christian Biener, University of St. Gallen), 2019-2024, CHF 529,787.
• Go For It While You Can, Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), Principal investigator, 2019-2023, CHF 710,129, with Ferdinand Vieider (Ghent, co-investigator) and Mohammed Abdellaoui (HEC Paris, project partner).
• Contextuality in Choice, University of St. Gallen Basic Research Fund, Principal investigator, 2018-2019, CHF 33,903.
• The Missing Toolbox for Designing Economic Experiments, Richard Büchner Foundation, Principal investigator (joint with Philipp Zahn, University of St. Gallen), 2017-2018, CHF 44,400.
• various of other projects as a co-investigator or project partner

• 2022:
  • CNRS individual bonus in recognition of the quality of activities and professional commitment
• 2021:
  • Ranked #1 in the CNRS (French National Center for Scientific Research) Competitive Examinations (Section 37: Economics and Management) for Research Director positions
• 2020:
  • Financial Times 50 Success Fee, awarded by the University of St. Gallen, CHF 10,000
  • Success fee for acquiring a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) SPARK grant, CHF 24,575
• 2019:
  • Success fee for acquiring a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) grant, awarded by the University of St. Gallen, CHF 40,000
• 2018:
  • Success fee for acquiring a Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) grant, awarded by the University of St. Gallen, CHF 40,000
• 2017:
  • Latsis prize of the University of St. Gallen for work on microeconomics, CHF 25,000
• 2016:
  • Teaching load reduction for Top-Top publications, University of St. Gallen

• Google Scholar
• RePEc IDEAS
• SSRN

• American Economic Review, Econometrica, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of Finance, Review of Economic Studies, Nature Communications, AEJ:Micro, Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of European Economic Association, Management Science, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, European Economic Review, Economic Journal, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Journal of Risk and Insurance, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Experimental Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organziation, The Geneva Risk and Insurance Review, Theory and Decision, Operations Research, and Economics Letters
• European Research Commission (ERC)

• University of Zurich, Ph.D. in Management and Economics, summa cum laude
• ETH Zurich, Diploma of Advanced Studies in Applied Statistics