Author archives: José Luis Ferreira

Image of José Luis Ferreira

José Luis Ferreira is an Associate Professor at the Economics Department in Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He studied Economics at the University of the Basque Country and obtained his PhD at Northwestern University. He has worked also at the University of Pennsylvania, ITAM and Chapman University. His main research interests are Game Theory, Experimental Economics and Economic Methodology. His publications include articles in the Journal of Economic Theory, Games and Economic Behavior, BE Journal of Theoretical Economics, Economics and Philosophy, and Analysis. He is a member of ARP-Sociedad para el Avance del Pensamiento Crítico (Society for the advancement of critical thinking).

The properties that characterize the definition of Nash equilibrium

The properties that characterize the definition of Nash equilibrium

EconomicsMathematics

By José Luis Ferreira

Strategic decision is the object of study for Game Theory, a discipline that started officially with the book The Theory of Games and Economic Behavior, by John von Neumann and Oskar Morgenstern . For non-cooperative games, i.e., games in which individuals make decisions individually and with no strings attached, the book was restricted to zero-sum […]

Is boost the new nudge?

Is boost the new nudge?

Economics

By José Luis Ferreira

Here, I summarize the discussion on the normative differences between nudges and boosts presented in Sims and Müller, 2019 . Behavioral Economics studies the systematic biases in economic decisions that occur because our cognitive processes are constrained and, thus, context-neutral optimization is impracticable. This area of research started with Tversky and Kahneman (1974) , and […]

Voting sincerely for public facilities location

Voting sincerely for public facilities location

Economics

By José Luis Ferreira

T here are two major impossibility theorems in social choice: Arrow’s theorem (1951) : the only system to aggregate individual preferences into social preferences (e.g., a voting mechanism) that satisfies the properties of transitivity, monotonicity and independence of irrelevant alternatives for all possible individual preferences is the dictatorial system. Gibbard–Satterthwaite’ theorem (1973) : any voting […]

The costs of going green

The costs of going green

EconomicsEnergy

By José Luis Ferreira

A tax on carbon emissions is an efficient way to make firms and consumers internalize the environmental costs due to climate change. However, there are many other aspects to consider in a transition from a fossil-fueled economy to a cleaner one. In a past article we presented the case for subsidies on research to develop […]