History of the Research Laboratory
The Research Laboratory of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences was inaugurated on April 18, 2012, during the Dies Academicus of the WiSo Faculty. Guest of honor for this event was Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Reinhard Selten, Nobel laureate in economics.
On April 18, 2012, the research lab was officially opened during the Dies Academicus of the faculty. On this occasion, Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Reinhard Selten gave a keynote lecture on "Rationality in the Light of Experimental Economic Research". Selten received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1994 for his insights into game theory. He turned away early on from the assumption of the rationally acting homo oeconomicus underlying game theory and studied human behavior in laboratory experiments well before this became an accepted method, also in economics.
In the course of setting up the research lab, the team led by Selten from the University of Bonn's Rationality Unit conducted various experiments in the WiSo Faculty's research lab in January 2011. In his presentation, Selten emphasized the excellent technical equipment of the WiSo experimental laboratory as well as the professional support provided by the staff of the Hamburg laboratory.