Robert Östling

I am a professor of economics at the Stockholm School of Economics primarily interested in applied microeconomics and behavioral economics. I obtained my Ph.D. in Economics from Stockholm School of Economics in 2008 and worked at the Institute for International Economic Studies (IIES) between 2008 and 2018. I was recently awarded the Assar Lindbeck Medal together with my collaborator Erik Lindqvist (prize motivation in Swedish). I also enjoy writing about economics for a broader audience, primarily at the Swedish blog Ekonomistas.

Education

• PhD Handelshögskolan i Stockholm (2003 — 2008)
• Docent Stockholms universitet (2017 — 2017)
• MSc Stockholm School of Economics (1998.08 — 2003.08)

Work in Progress

• "Generosity and Political Preferences" (co-authors Christopher T. Dawes, Magnus Johannesson, Erik Lindqvist, Peter Loewen, Marianne Bonde and Frida Priks). Revision requested by the Journal of Politics.

Publications

“Windfall Gains and Stock Market Participation” (co-authors Joseph Briggs, David Cesarini and Erik Lindqvist). Journal of Financial Economics 139(1) 57-83.

“Long-run Effects of Lottery Wealth on Psychological Well-being” (co-authors David Cesarini and Erik Lindqvist). Review of Economic Studies 87(6) 2703-2726. Related material: New York Times article, Swedish news coverage (SvD, DN, SR), Twitter summary.

“Association Between Lottery Prize Size and Self-reported Health Habits in Swedish Lottery Players” (co-authors David Cesarini and Erik Lindqvist). JAMA Network Open 3(3):e1919713.

“Learning by similarity-weighted imitation in winner-takes-all games” (co-authors Erik Mohlin and Joseph Tao-yi Wang). Games and Economic Behavior 120 225-245. Related material: Twitter summary.

”How Does Communication Affect Beliefs in One-shot Games with Complete Information?” (co-authors Tore Ellingsen and Erik Wengström). Games and Economic Behavior 107 153-181.

“The Effect of Wealth on Individual and Household Labor Supply: Evidence from Swedish Lotteries” (co-authors David Cesarini, Erik Lindqvist and Matthew J. Notowidigdo). American Economic Review 107(12) 3917-3946. Online Appendix, VoxEU blog post.

“Wealth, Health, and Child Development: Evidence from Administrative Data on Swedish Lottery Players” (co-authors David Cesarini, Erik Lindqvist and Björn Wallace). Quarterly Journal of Economics 131(2) 687–738. Related material: Online Appendix.

“Lowest Unique Bid Auctions with Population Uncertainty” (co-authors Erik Mohlin and Joseph Tao-yi Wang), Economics Letters 134, 53–57.

"Identity and Redistribution" (co-author Erik Lindqvist) Public Choice 155(3-4), 469-491.

"Testing Game Theory in the Field: Swedish LUPI Lottery Games" (co-authors Joseph Tao-yi Wang, Eileen Chou and Colin F. Camerer), American Economic Journal: Microeconomics 3(3) 1-33 (lead article). Related material: Online Appendix, data and code.

"Strategic Risk and Coordination Failure in Blame Games" (co-author Tore Ellingsen), Economics Letters 110(2), 90-92.

"Political Polarization and the Size of Government" (co-author Erik Lindqvist), American Political Science Review, 104(3), 543-565.

"The Effect of Competition on Physical Activity: A Randomized Trial"(co-authors Magnus Johannesson and Eva Ranehill), B.E. Journal of Economic Policy and Analysis (Topics), 10(1), Article 91.

"When Does Communication Improve Coordination?" (co-author Tore Ellingsen), American Economic Review 100(4), 1695-1724. Related material: Online Appendix 3.

"Economic Influences on Moral Values", The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy (Advances)9(1), Article 2.

"Bounded Rationality and Endogenous Preferences", Ph.D. Dissertation, Stockholm School of Economics, 2008.

"A Game Theoretic Model of the Northwestern European Electricity Market – Market Power and the Environment" (co-authors Wietze Lise, Vincent Linderhof, Onno Kuik, Claudia Kempfert and Thomas Heinzow), Energy Policy, 2006, 34(15), p 2123–2136.