Profile Picture

Hi!

I like to think about strategic decision-making and belief-formation. I write models and design experiments. I have also used (and plan to use more) field data from professional sports to test economic theories.

Contact

  • julian.matthes [at] awi.uni-heidelberg.de
  • AWI, Bergheimer Straße 58, Room 01.007.

Short CV

  • Since 2021: PhD candidate in Economics at Heidelberg University (under supervision of J. Oechssler)
  • Jan-Mar 2025: Visitor at UCL (at invitation of R. Spiegler)
  • 2021 - 2023: Visiting PhD student at GESS, Mannheim University
  • 2016 - 2021: BSc and MSc Mathematics at Heidelberg University

Research Interests

  • Behavioral and Experimental Economics
  • Microeconomic Theory

Working Papers

On the Demand for Mental Models (with Katharina Momsen)
  • Online experiment conducted on Prolific.
  • Do people treat interpretations of historic data as a substitute to more data (or an informative signal) when making predictions?
  • Does anticipatory utility impact the tradeoff, i.e., do interpretations enable motivated reasoning?

Research in Progress

Economic Decision Making during Moderate Physical Exercise (with Carlo Dindorf)
  • Lab experiment currently conducted in Kaiserslautern.
  • Does economic behavior change within individuals when exercising at moderate intensity versus at rest?
  • Experiment includes tasks on belief updating, other-regarding preferences, risk preferences, and adherence to GARP.

Publications

Don't Put All Your Legs in One Basket - Theory and Evidence on Coopetition in Road Cycling (with David Piazolo)
European Economic Review: Volume 170 (2024)
  • Theoretical and empirical analysis: How do characteristics of riders in competing groups of cyclists impact cooperation within these groups?
  • Main Takeaways: Having a teammate in a competing group creates free-riding opportunities (in both groups). Groups with asymmetric skill distribution tend to cooperate better.
  • Applications in IO, e.g. coopetition of chain stores in ports or tourism destinations.
Finding Large Rainbow Trees in Colorings of
The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics: Volume 30, Issue 4 (2023)
  • Pure Mathematics (combinatorics).
  • I prove that asymptotically, the bipartite graph with 2n vertices (see picture for n=5) can be partitioned into n copies of any tree with n edges.