Johannes Lohse
Research Overview
I work as a W1-Professor in Law & Economics at Leuphana University and I am Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. My research centers on understanding how instiutions and incentives shape decisions that affect the environment — especially those that benefit future generations. Using methods from behavioral economics, I examine why people cooperate, take risks, or give to charitable causes, and how these motivations translate into climate-friendly actions.
Through experimental studies and the analysis of non-choice data, I aim to uncover the cognitive processes that drive cooperative and environmentally responsible behavior. This knowledge helps policymakers, organizations, and communities design more effective strategies for promoting sustainability and preserving public goods over the long term. My research has been supported by grants from the British Academy, AHRC, UKRI, BMBF, and other funding bodies.
I serve on the board of Co-Editors at Environmental and Resource Economics and recently co-edited a special issue on cognition and economic behavior for the Journal of Economic Psychology.
Publications
The Role of Facial Cues in Signalling Cooperativeness is Limited and Nuanced, Nature Scientific Reports (2024), Vol 14, Article 22009, with Santiago Sanchez-Pages, and Enrique Turiegano
Investigations of Decision Processes at the Intersection of Psychology and Economics, Journal of Economic Psychology (2024), Vol 103, with Rima-Maria Rahal, Michael Schulte-Mecklenbeck, Andis Sofianos, and Conny Wollbrant
Beyond Social Influence: Examining the Efficacy of Non-Social Recommendations, European Economic Review (2024), Vol 168, September 2024 with Danae Arroyos-Calvera and Rebecca McDonald
Inter-carity competition under spatial differentiation: Sorting, crowding, and spillovers, Journal of Economic Behaviour and Organization (2023), Vol 216, December 2023, with Carlo Gallier, Timo Goeschl, Martin Kesternich, Christiane Reif, and Daniel Römer
Improving compliance with COVID-19 guidance: a workplace field experiment, Behavioural Public Policy (2023) with Danae Arroyos-Calvera, Michalis Drouvelis, and Rebecca McDonald.
I’m in a hurry, I don't want to know! Strategic ignorance under time pressure, The Journal of Experimental Psychology: General with Johannes Jarke
The effects of contemporaneous peer punishment on cooperation with the future, Nature Communications (2020), Vol 11, Nr 1815 with Israel Waichman
What do we learn from public good games about voluntary climate action? Evidence from an artefactual field experiment, Ecological Economics (2020), Vol. 171, May 2020, with Timo Goeschl, Sara Elisa Kettner and Christiane Schwieren
Levelling up? An inter-neighbourhood experiment on parochialism and the efficiency of multi-level public goods provision, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization (2019), Vol. 164, Aug. 2019, pp. 500-517, with Carlo Gallier, Timo Goeschl, Martin Kesternich, Christiane Reif and Daniel Römer
Cooperation in public good games. Calculated or confused?, European Economic Review (2018), Vol. 120, pp.185-203, with Timo Goeschl
Is fairness intuitive? An experiment accounting for the role of subjective utility differences under time pressure, Experimental Economics (2018), with Anna Merkel
From Social Information to Social Norms: Evidence from Two Experiments on Donation Behaviour, Games (2018), Vol 9, No. 4, with Timo Goeschl, Sara Kettner and Christiane Schwieren
Registered Replication Report: Rand, Greene and Nowak (2012), Perspectives in Psychological Sciences (2017), Vol.12, No.3, pp. 527-542, with Bouwmeester et al.
Giving is a question of time: Response times and contributions to an environmental public good, Environmental and Resource Economics (2017), Vol. 67, No. 3, pp. 455–477, with Timo Goeschl and Johannes Diederich
Smart or Selfish? - When smart guys finish nice, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (2016), Vol. 64, p. 28-40
Working Papers
Cooperation across generations: Reciprocal copperation or intergenerational exchange with Zach Freitas-Groff, Ben Grodeck and Oliver Hauser
Cognitive abilities and risk taking: the role of preferences, with Michalis Drouvelis
A Healthy Start for Healthy Start Vouchers?, with Hamideh Mohtashami Borzadaran and Emma Frew
Discrimination during Brexit?, with Rebecca McDonald and Hamideh Mohtashami Borzadaran
Active and Passive Risk-Taking, with Christian König-Kersting and Anna Merkel
Should transparency be (in-) transparent? On monitoring aversion and cooperation in teams, with Michalis Drouvelis and Johannes Jarke
Absolute groupishness and the demand for information, with Rebecca McDonald
The swing voter's curse revisited: Transparency's impact on committee voting, with Moumita Deb, Rebecca McDonald and Sid Bandyopadhyay
Experiment Aversion Revised and Revisited, with Bettina Chlond and Timo Goeschl. (Paper draft available)
Book Chapters
"Inter-charity competition and efficiency: Considerations beyond fundraising and tax incentives for giving" The Routledge Handbook of Taxation and Philanthropy (2021), with Kim Scharf
"Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf das Bayerische Klimaschutzgesetz." Bayerische Verwaltungsblätter (2022). Borberg Verlag, with Harald Kustman und Eva Lohse