As the technology and methods for collecting and analyzing large datasets about consumers has improved, so has the ability of firms to predict individual consumer behavior and preferences. As social scientists, it is natural to ask whether this is a good development. How has classical economics analyzed the question? Does behavioral economics provide a new angle?
Botond Kőszegi is professor of economics at CEU. He was previously assistant professor, associate professor, and then professor of economics at the University of California at Berkeley. Kőszegi received a BA in mathematics from Harvard University in 1996, and a PhD in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2000. He has published extensively on behavioral economics topics – including several lead articles – in top journals such as the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Journal of the European Economic Association, and Journal of Public Economics. His research interests are primarily in the theoretical foundations of behavioral economics. He has produced research on self-control problems and the consumption and regulation of harmful products, self-image and anticipatory utility, as well as reference-dependent preferences and loss aversion. More recently, he has been studying how firms respond to consumers' psychological tendencies, especially in the pricing of products and the design of credit contracts and other potentially deceptive products. He received a European Research Council Grant in 2012, and the Jahnsson Award, a biennial award for the best economist in Europe under the age of 45, in 2015. He is managing editor at the Review of Economic Studies.