Editorial Statement—Behavioral Economics and Decision Analysis
Behavioral Economics and Decision Analysis
Aurélien Baillon, Emlyon Business School
John Beshears, Harvard Business School
Dorothea Kübler, WZB, Technische Universität Berlin
Jack B. Soll, Duke University
Marie Claire Villeval, CNRS
Roberto Weber, University of Zurich
George Wu, University of Chicago
The Behavioral Economics and Decision Analysis Department seeks papers that promote the understanding of how decisions are and should be made by individuals and groups. The scope of the department includes topics in the domains of behavioral economics, decision analysis, and judgment and decision making. Papers must meet the rigorous standards of the journal. They must also be relevant to the science of management, by dealing with issues important to managers and executives or having the potential to impact management practice by providing insights into behavior and decision making.
Some examples of broad topic areas within the department’s purview include the following (the list is not exhaustive): the psychology of individual or group decision making; models of decision making that account for perceptions of uncertainty, ambiguity, or deviations from rational behavior; methods to elicit and aggregate judgments and preferences; understanding how individuals’ decision processes, preferences and biases shape collective and market outcomes; and the development of interventions or “choice architectures” designed to improve decision making. Papers may develop original theory, propose new models or methodologies, present empirical evidence either from the laboratory or from the field, and/or involve innovative or important applications. Empirical papers should aspire to identify causal mechanisms and generalize beyond the specific context being studied. Review papers will also be considered, provided that they are integrative and provide new insights as opposed to merely categorizing or summarizing the literature.
We value transparency and invite authors to document their research process. This may include, for example, disclosing pilots and various analysis attempts, preregistration of studies, and documenting deviations from initial plans and changes due to the review process. “Open science” norms evolve and can vary across disciplines. Authors are advised to keep up with the standards in their field and to conform when feasible and appropriate.
As the department has a behavioral focus, authors of theoretical work that does not have a behavioral element (e.g., related to dynamic programming, market or mechanism design, or normative treatments of individual decision making or strategic games) might consider submitting their work to the Optimization and Decision Analytics Department or the Market Design, Platform, and Demand Analytics Department.
