Event summary

Bio:

Luís Santos-Pinto is a Professor of Economics at HEC Lausanne, the Faculty of Business and Economics of the University of Lausanne. He holds a PhD in Economics from University of California, San Diego. Prior to joining the University of Lausanne in 2008, he worked at Nova School of Business & Economics from 2004 to 2008. His main area of research is applied microeconomic theory. He investigates the links between information, cognition, judgment, and economic behavior. He studies the implications of behavioral biases like overconfidence and optimism in terms of individual decision making, the design of incentives in organizations, market outcomes, and welfare. He uses laboratory and field experiments to study the existence and consequences of these biases for economic decisions. His research spans over the areas of applied microeconomic theory, behavioral, experimental, and labor economics. His work is published in American Economic Review, Journal of Labor Economics, The Economic Journal, International Economic Review,  European Economic Review, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, International Journal of Game Theory, International Journal of Industrial Organization, Theory and Decision, and Games. He teaches courses at the BA, MA, Executive MBA, and PhD levels. He teaches a variety of courses including Behavioral Economics, Game Theory, Industrial Organization, and The Economics of Asymmetric Information.

Abstract:

Teamwork has become increasingly important in modern organizations and the labor market. Yet, little is known about the role of self-confidence in teamwork. In this paper, we present evidence from a laboratory experiment using a team real effort task. Effort and ability are complements and there are synergies between teammates’ efforts. We exogenously manipulate subjects’ self-confidence about their ability using easy and hard general knowledge quizzes. We find that overconfidence leads to more effort, less free riding, and higher team revenue. These findings suggest that organizations could improve team performance by hiring overconfident workers.

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