Working Papers

• “Black Beliefs and Racial Identity Norms: An Examination of How Black Americans Understand Racism.”  with Antoine Banks, Eric Groenendyk, Janae Jackson, and Mark Pickup. R&R at Journal of Politics.

• "On the Moral/Conventional Distinction: An Experimental Investigation." with John Thrasher. R&R at Philosophical Psychology.

• "A Theory of Injunctive Norms." with Alexander Vostroknutov.

• "Resentment and Punishment." with  Alexander Vostroknutov.

• "A Theory of Moral Reasoning." with Alexander Vostroknutov.

• "Affective Decision Making." with  Alexander Vostroknutov.

• "Alliance Formation and Divided Loyalties." with Peter DeScioli.

• "What Counts as Racism? American Norms, Partisan Norms and Personal Beliefs about Racism." with Antoine Banks, Eric Groenendyk, and Mark Pickup.

• "Pluralism Breeds Tolerance." with Eugen Dimant, Folco Panizza and Alexander Vostroknutov.

• "Do Individualists and Collectivists Cooperate Differently?" with Aidin Hajikhameneh and Brock Stoddard.

• “Measuring Norms: A Comparison of the Predictive and Descriptive Power of Three Methods." with Diego Aycinena and Francesco Bogliacino.

• “Measuring Norms: Eliciting normative expectations with Krupka and Weber's method allowing for neutral reports." with Diego Aycinena and Francesco Bogliacino.

• “Dictator Games with Different Endowment Sources: A Conceptual Replication." with Diego Aycinena and Francesco Bogliacino.

• "Moderators of peer influence effects for adolescents’ smoking and vaping norms and outcomes in high and middle-income settings." with Jennifer Murray, Sharon Sanchez-Franco, Olga L. Sarmiento, Christopher Tate, Shannon Montgomery, Rajnish Kumar, Laura Dunne, Abhijit Ramalingam, Erin Krupka, Felipe Montes, Huiyu Zhou, Laurence Moore, Linda Bauld, Blanca Llorente, Frank Kee, and Ruth Hunter.

• "Mediation Analysis Investigating the Mechanisms of Two School-Based Smoking Prevention Interventions in Adolescents from Northern Ireland and Bogotá." with Jennifer Murray, Sharon Sanchez-Franco, Olga L. Sarmiento, Christopher Tate, Shannon Montgomery, Rajnish Kumar, Laura Dunne, Allen Thurston, Aideen Gildea, Abhijit Ramalingam, Erin Krupka, Felipe Montes, Huiyu Zhou, Laurence Moore, Linda Bauld, Blanca Llorente, Frank Kee, and Ruth Hunter.

• "Investigating variation in adherence to classroom norms for smoking and vaping according to individual norms sensitivities for adolescents in Northern Ireland and Bogotá." with Jennifer Murray, Sharon Sanchez-Franco, Olga L. Sarmiento, Christopher Tate, Shannon Montgomery, Rajnish Kumar, Laura Dunne, Abhijit Ramalingam, Erin Krupka, Felipe Montes, Huiyu Zhou, Laurence Moore, Linda Bauld, Blanca Llorente, Frank Kee, and Ruth Hunter. 

• "How Important Are Cultural Frictions for Internal Migration? Evidence from the Nineteenth Century United States." with Taylor A. Jaworski and Nicole Saito.

  • NBER WP Version

• "Optimization and Social Learning in Static and Dynamic Environments." with Ryan Oprea and Jared Rubin.

• "Is This How Democracy Dies? Democratic Norms and Belief Systems in Mass Publics." with Mark Pickup, Laura French Bourgeois, Eric Groenendyk, Allison Harell, and Laura Stephenson.

• "Cross-Cutting Identity Effects as a Source of Heterogeneity in Ideological Identity Norms."  with Eline de Rooij and Mark Pickup.

Publications

   Norms 

• "Polarization in Multidisciplinary Perspective." with Eugen Dimant. 2024. PNAS Nexus. 3(10): pgae425.

  • Introduction to the Special Feature on Polarization and Trust.

• "Measuring Norm Pluralism and Perceived Polarization in US Politics." with Eugen Dimant, Folco Panizza and Alexander Vostroknutov. 2024. PNAS Nexus. 3(10): pgae413.

• "Measuring Norms: Assessing the Threat of Social Desirability Bias to the Bicchieri and Xiao Elicitation Method."with Diego Aycinena and Francesco Bogliacino. 2024. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 222: 225-239.

• "On the Stability of Measures of Norms and Norm-Following: A Cross-Country Panel Study with Adolescents." with Erin Krupka, Rajnish Kumar, Jennifer Murray, Abhijit Ramalingam, Sharon Sanchez-Franco, Olga L. Sarmiento, Frank Kee, and Ruth Hunter. 2024. Experimental Economics. 27: 351-378.

• "Countering the Trump Effect in Canada: Strengthening Support for Immigrants using National Identity." with Mark Pickup, Steven Nuss and Clifton van der Linden. 2023. Politics, Groups and Identities. 12(4): 761-781.

• "Crossing the Line: Evidence for the Categorization Theory of Spatial Voting." with Eline de Rooij and Mark Pickup. 2024. British Journal of Political Science. 54(3): 946-956.

• "Selection homophily and peer influence for adolescents' experimentally measured smoking and vaping norms, and outcomes, in high and middle-income settings." with Jennifer Murray, Sharon Sanchez-Franco, Olga L. Sarmiento, Christopher Tate, Shannon Montgomery, Rajnish Kumar, Laura Dunne, Abhijit Ramalingam, Erin Krupka, Felipe Montes, Huiyu Zhou, Laurence Moore, Linda Bauld, Blanca Llorente, Frank Kee, and Ruth Hunter. 2023. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 10 (615): 35pp.

• "How Norms Shape the Nature of Belief Systems in Mass Publics." with Eric Groenendyk and Mark Pickup. 2023. American Journal of Political Science. 67(3): 623-638.

  • Coverage on The Monkey Cage and the AJPS blog.

• "The Personality and Cognitive Traits Associated with Adolescents’ Sensitivity to Social Norms" with Christopher Tate,  Rajnish Kumar, Jennifer Murray, Sharon Sanchez-Franco, Olga L. Sarmiento, Shannon C. Montgomery, Huiyu Zhou, Abhijit Ramalingam, Erin Krupka, Frank Kee, and Ruth Hunter. 2022. Scientific Reports. 12: 15247.

• "Rule-Following." with Bart J. Wilson. 2022. Routledge Handbook of Philosophy, Politics and Economics, ed. Christopher Melenovsky. pp. 108-120.

• "Rules, Perception and the Intelligibility of Laboratory Experiments on Social Interaction in Economics." 2022. In Advances in Austrian Economics: Contemporary Methods and Austrian Economics, vol. 26. eds. Adam Martin and Daniel J. D'Amico. pp. 35-53.

• "Expressive Politics as (Costly) Norm-Following." with Eline de Rooij and Mark Pickup. 2022. Political Behavior. 44(4): 1611-1631.

  • A quite careful summary of this paper was published in the Academic Times

• "Confirmatory factor analysis comparing incentivized experiments with self-report methods to elicit adolescent smoking social norms: MECHANISMS study." Jennifer Murray, Erik O. Kimbrough, Erin Krupka, Abhijit Ramalingam, Rajnish Kumar, Joanna McHugh Power, Sharon Sanchez-Franco, Olga Sarmiento, Frank Kee, Ruth Hunter​. 2020. Scientific Reports. 10: 15818.

  • Supplementary Info

• "MECHANISMS Study: Using Game Theory to assess the effects of social norms and social networks on adolescent smoking in schools - study protocol." Ruth F. Hunter*, Felipe Montes, Jennifer M. Murray, Sharon C. Sanchez-Franco, Shannon C. Montgomery, Joaquín Jaramillo, Christopher Tate, Rajnish Kumar, Laura Dunne, Abhijit Ramalingam, Erik O. Kimbrough, Erin Krupka, Huiyu Zhou, Laurence Moore, Linda Bauld, Blanca Llorente, Olga L. Sarmiento and Frank Kee. 2020. Frontiers in Public Health. 8(377): 1-14.

  • This paper documents the complete study protocol of our field experiment, conducted in Bogotá, CO and Belfast, NI.

• "An Experimental Study of Kin and Ethnic and Favoritism." with Mahsa Akbari, Duman Bahrami-Rad, Pedro Romero, and Sadegh Alhosseini. 2020. Economic Inquiry. 58(4): 1795-1812.

• "Kinship, Fractionalization and Corruption." with Mahsa Akbari and Duman Bahrami-Rad. 2019. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 166: 493-528.

  • SSHRC Storyteller's Contest Prizewinner, video here

• "Identity and the Self-Reinforcing Effects of Norm Compliance." with Eline de Rooij and Mark Pickup. 2020. Southern Economic Journal. 86(3): 1222-1240.

• "A Portable Method of Eliciting Respect for Social Norms." with Alexander Vostroknutov. 2018. Economics Letters. 168: 147-150.

• "Norms Make Preferences Social." with Alexander Vostroknutov. 2016. Journal of the European Economic Association. 14(3): 608-638. DOI: 10.1111/jeea.12152

  • An older paper containing a portion of this data was circulated under the title "Rules, Rule-Following, and Cooperation." 

  • I was on the "Economics Detective" Podcast to talk about this research. Listen here.

• "The Social and Ecological Determinants of Common Pool Resource Sustainability." with Alexander Vostroknutov. 2015. Journal of Environmental Economics & Management. 72: 38-53.

    Property Rights and Exchange

• "Ecological Influences on Informal Property Rights." 2025. Water Economics and Policy, 11(1): 1-28. 

  • Part of a Special Issue in honor of Amnon Rapoport.

• "Individualism, Collectivism and Trade." with Aidin Hajikhameneh. 2019. Experimental Economics, 22(2): 294-324. (Lead Article)

• "Sustaining Group Reputation." with Jared Rubin. 2015. Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, 31(3): 599-628.

• "Economic History in the Lab: The Impact of Institutional History and Geography on the Development of Long-Distance Trade." 2015. in Union in Separation – Diasporic Communities in the Eastern Mediterranean (1100-1900), eds. G. Christ, A. Beihammer, S. Burkhardt, W. Kaiser, F.J. Morche, R. Zaugg. Viella: Rome. pp 97-104.

• "Insiders, Outsiders, and the Adaptability of Informal Rules to Ecological Shocks." with Bart J. Wilson. 2013. Ecological Economics. 90: 29-40.

  • Media coverage here.

• "The Primacy of Entrepreneurs in Exploiting Long-Distance Exchange." with Bart J. Wilson. 2012. Managerial and Decision Economics. 33(6): 385-407.

• "Learning to Respect Property by Refashioning Theft into Trade." 2011. Experimental Economics, 14(1): 84-109.

• "Heuristic Learning and the Discovery of Specialization and Exchange." 2011. Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, 35(4): 491-511.

• "Geography and Social Networks in Nascent Distal Exchange." with Bart J. Wilson. 2011. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 167: 409-433.

• "Exchange, Theft, and the Social Formation of Property." with Vernon L. Smith and Bart J. Wilson. 2010. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 74: 206-229.

• "Historical Property Rights, Sociality, and the Emergence of Impersonal Exchange in Long-Distance Trade." with Vernon L. Smith and Bart J. Wilson. 2008. American Economic Review, 98(3): 1009-1039.

• "Building a Market: From Personal to Impersonal Exchange." with Vernon L. Smith and Bart J. Wilson, in Moral Markets: The Critical Role of Values in the Economy, ed. Paul J. Zak. 2008. Princeton University Press.

    Contests, Conflict and Conflict Resolution

• "The Supply-Side Determinants of Territory." with Jordan Adamson. 2023. Journal of Peace Research, 60(2): 209-225.

• "Alliance Formation in a Side-Taking Experiment." with Peter DeScioli. 2019. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 6(1): 53-70.

• "War and Conflict in Economics: Theories, Applications and Recent Trends." with Kevin Laughren and Roman M. Sheremeta. 2020. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 178: 998-1013.

  • Introduction to the Special Issue, "Theories of Conflict and War." with Roman M. Sheremeta. 2019. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 159: 384-387.

• "Experimenting with Contests for Experimentation." with Cary A. Deck. 2017. Southern Economic Journal, 84(2): 391-406.

  • Video Instructions, Response Forms

• "Single- and Double-Elimination All-Pay Tournaments." with  Cary A. Deck. 2015. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 113: 416-429.

• "Commitment Problems in Conflict Resolution." with Jared Rubin, Timothy W. Shields, and Roman M. Sheremeta. 2015. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 112: 33-45.

• "Why Can't We Be Friends? Entitlements and the Costs of Conflict." with Roman M. Sheremeta. 2014. Journal of Peace Research, 51(4): 487-500.

• "When Parity Promotes Peace: Resolving Conflict Between Asymmetric Agents." with Roman M. Sheremeta and Timothy W. Shields. 2014. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 99: 96-108.

• "Side Payments and the Costs of Conflict." with Roman M. Sheremeta. 2013. International Journal of Industrial Organization. 31(3): 278-286.

    Markets, Games and Learning

• "Reserve Price Preferences and Auction Design." with Philipp Limberg and David Porter. 2024. Journal of Behavioral Finance. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427560.2024.2430515

• "When Do Security Markets Aggregate Dispersed Information?” with Brice Corgnet, Cary Deck, Mark DeSantis, and Kyle Hampton. 2023. Managment Science. 69(6): 3697-3729.

• "Reference Dependent Prices in Bargaining: An Experimental Examination of Precise First Offers." with David Porter and Mark Schneider. 2021. Journal of Economic Psychology. 86: 102406.

• "Opportunity Cost, Inattention and The Bidder's Curse." with David Freeman and J. Philipp Reiss. 2020. European Economic Review. 129: 103543. 

  • We wrote up a short summary for the Canadian Investment Review, here

• "How Do Peers Impact Learning? An Experimental Investigation of Peer-to-Peer Teaching and Ability Tracking." with Andrew McGee and Hitoshi Shigeoka. 2022. Journal of Human Resources. 57(1): 304-339. 

  • Data, NBER WP Version 

• "Instructions." with David Freeman, Garrett Petersen, and Hanh Tong. 2018. Journal of the Economic Science Association, 4(2): 165-179.

• "Testing the Boundaries of the Double Auction: the Effects of Complete Information and Market Power." with Andrew Smyth. 2018. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization. 150: 372-396.

• "Applying 'Theory of Mind': Theory and Experiments." with Nikolaus Robalino and Arthur Robson. 2017. Games and Economic Behavior. 106: 209-226. DOI: 10.1016/j.geb.2017.10.008

• "Bubbles, Crashes and Endogenous Uncertainty in Linked Asset and Product Markets." with Taylor A. Jaworski. 2016. International Economic Review. 57(1): 155-176.

• "An Experimental Study of the Impact of Social Comparison on Investment." with Gary A. Hoover. 2016. Social Science Quarterly. 97(2): 350-361.

• "Paying for Express Checkout: Competition and Price Discrimination in Multi-Server Queuing Systems." with Cary A. Deck and Steeve Mongrain. 2014. PLoS ONE, 9(3): e92070. Data.

• "Do Market Incentives Crowd Out Charitable Giving?" with Cary A. Deck. 2013. Journal of Socio-Economics. 47: 16-24.

• "Measuring the Distribution of Spitefulness." with J. Philipp Reiss. 2012. PLoS ONE, 7(8): e41812.

  • Media coverage here and here, with a detailed interview here.

    Evolutionary Psychology and Cultural Evolution

• "Cultural Evolution: A Review of Theoretical Needs." with Ryan Nichols, Mathieu Charbonneau, Adita Chellappoo, Taylor Davis, Miriam Haidle, Henrike Moll, Richard Moore, Benjamin Purzycki, Thom Scott-Phillips, and Jose Segovia. Forthcoming. Evolutionary Human Sciences.

• "Opinion: Infanticide and Human Self-Domestication." with Gordon M. Myers and Arthur Robson. 2021. Frontiers in Psychology - Evolutionary Psychology. 12(667334): 1-5.

Works In Progress

• "Intersecting Identities in the UK." with Eric Groenendyk and Mark Pickup.

• "Focal Norms." with Jackson Marley and Juan Rivera.

• "Revealed Norms." with Shachar Kariv.

• "Multi-unit Dutch and English Clock Auctions with Restart." with James Gilmore, David Porter, and Vernon L. Smith.

• “Political Parties, Pressure Groups and Group Pressures.” with Eric Groenendyk and Mark Pickup.

• "Hopes and Beliefs in Games." with Keh-Kuan Sun.

• "Experiments on Debt Clearing." with Lars Boerner and John Hatfield.

• "On the Objective of the Firm." with Mark DeSantis and Sebastien Pouget.

• "Coordination in Time." with Lars Boerner and Mouli Modak.

• "Three-to-five Year Olds Delay Gratification Longer in Societies with Formal Education." with Hilary Aime and Tanya Broesch.