Personality Traits, Preferences and Economic Success

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Winfried Franz Xaver Pohlmeier
• Subject Area: Statistics and Econometrics
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 215899445

This research project focuses on the relationship between personal traits, individual preferences, and economic success. The goal is to achieve a better understanding of individual preference formation and economic decision making incorporating the concept of dual-processing.Personality traits are inherently hard to measure, so empirical approaches should take into account the presence of measurement errors. Most of the empirical approaches adopted thus far rely on simple parametric and linear latent structure models. More recently, Bayesian factor structure models have been proposed which allow the researcher to tackle both the measurement error problem and the endogeneity problem. Moreover, the Bayesian approach allows for analyzing models with large number of measurements and factors, which can be selected endogenously by appropriate parsimonious Bayesian factor selection techniques.The empirical studies will be based on large scale panel data using econometric models for nonexperimental evaluation of causal treatment effects and Bayesian factor models. The project will also contribute to a methodological advancement of these models.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 1882: Psychoeconomics. Interacting Decision Processes and their Consequences for Economic Performance