Bradley Ruffle

Professor, Economics

I am a behavioural and experimental economist passionate about designing controlled experiments. Broadly speaking, my research interests revolve around understanding human decision-making in economically interesting, usually strategic, situations. Some of the specific questions my research addresses include: what types of group rituals promote in-group cooperation? Are large industrial buyers able to counteract monopoly power? Are physically attractive job candidates more likely to be hired? Can insurance companies pre-fill fields on a claims form to reduce insurance fraud? Do people actually make the same labour-leisure and purchase choices when faced with theoretically equivalent taxes? Why do people still give in-kind gifts rather than cash or gift cards? One current research project explores whether better alternatives exist to the matching mechanism that university and college co-op programs employ to match students to jobs.