The Erasmus School of Economics (FEW) has more than 4000 students inEconomics, Econometrics and in Master's Programs. It has a long tradition ofresearch in a wide range of areas. A large part of the research takes placewithin the Tinbergen Institute. The Faculty employs over 400 people. Thecandidates for this project will participate in the Decision-and-Uncertaintygroup at the Econometric Institute .and the Health Economics Department. We are an enthusiastic andinternationally active group, specialized in decision theory, and wecollaborate with psychologists and mathematicians.

Title of project: "Risk and Rationality: Using Empirical Findings fromProspect Theory to Improve Rational Decisions in Health and Other Fields."

Project
Prospect theory, the model for decision under risk introduced by Kahneman &Tversky (1979), is immensely popular among psychologists and in appliedeconomic domains where risk plays a role. Its importance was recognizedthrough the 2002 Nobel prize in economics, and it is also widely used inmedical applications. Prospect theory assumes that, besides (i) rationalfactors based on utility and additive probabilities that are studied inclassical approaches, other factors play a role. Such factors are (ii)people's sensitivity towards (lack of) information, modeled throughsubjective probabilities that can be nonadditive, and (iii) loss aversion-the special sensitivity of people towards losses. Remarkably, not manytheoretical results have been developed for prospect theory, and empiricaltests have been based on ad hoc interpretations of the concepts of thetheory so far. This project aims to develop theoretical foundations and,thereby, critical empirical tests for these concepts. It applies itsfindings primarily to the health domain. Other fields of application areinsurance, finance, experimental game theory, finance, and/or other areas,depending on the candidate's background.

Requirements
We search for two candidates. The desired candidates have a Master's degreein a quantitative discipline. Knowledge of mathematics, game theory,statistics, econometric analyses, and/or programming skills are a plus.

Conditions
The position will be for a maximum of four years. The gross monthly salarywill be approximately € 1,933 in the first year, increasing to € 2,472 inthe fourth year. There will also be an 8% holiday allowance.

Please email applications, including a cover letter, and a CV, to Peter P.Wakker, Wakker@few.eur.nlas soon as possible. In the case of future rounds we will ask to providerecommendations from academic references.

Information can be obtained from either of the two supervisors, beingProfessor Peter Wakker (http://www.fee.uva.nl/creed/wakker) and ProfessorHan Bleichrodt (http://people.few.eur.nl/bleichrodt/).