The department and the Behavioral Economics Design Initiative welcomed acclaimed researcher and author Uri Gneezy on Friday, April 14, for a talk on incentives and his new book, Mixed Signals: How Incentives Really Work. Over 120 undergraduates, graduate students from the PhD and MQE programs, and faculty from across the university attended the talk and book signing, which was simulcast into a second lecture hall to accommodate the large audience. All guests received a free copy of the book as well. A synopsis of Mixed Signals from the publisher:
"Incentives send powerful signals that aim to influence behavior. But often there is a conflict between what we say and what we do in response to these incentives. The result: mixed signals.
Consider the CEO who urges teamwork but designs incentives for individual success, who invites innovation but punishes failure, who emphasizes quality but pays for quantity. Employing real-world scenarios just like this to illustrate this everyday phenomenon, behavioral economist Uri Gneezy explains why incentives often fail and demonstrates how the right incentives can change behavior by aligning with signals for better results."
Uri Gneezy is the Epstein/Atkinson Endowed Chair in Behavioral Economics and professor of economics and strategic management at the Rady School of Management at the University of California, San Diego.
