Prof. Dr. Dr. Lydia Mechtenberg

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• Since 2025: Spokesperson of DFG Research Unit 'Big Structural Change'"
• Since 2023: Full Professor of Political Economy at the Universität Hamburg (tenured)
• 2012-2022: Associate Professor of Economics at the Universität Hamburg (tenured)
• 2011 - 2012: Replacement Chair for Public Finance at the University of Mannheim, Department of Economics
• 2009 - 2011: Postdoctoral Researcher at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), Department "Markets and Politics/Market Behavior"
• 2005 - 2009: Researcher/Postdoctoral Researcher at the Technical University of Berlin, Department of Microeconomics
• 2005: Fall and spring term, filling in for Professor Dr. Kuebler at the Technical University of Berlin, Department of Microeconomics
• 2003 - 2005: Researcher at the Social Science Research Center Berlin (WZB), Department "Markets and Politics"
• 2001 - 2005: Researcher at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Department of Philosophy
• 2006: PhD in Economics, Technical University of Berlin (Degree: summa cum laude/ with distinction. Supervisors: Dorothea Kuebler, Paul Heidhues)
• 2004: PhD in Philosophy, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Degree: summa cum laude/ with distinction)
• 2002: Diplom (equivalent to Master) in Economics, Free University of Berlin (best degree of the cohort)
• 2000: Master in Philosophy, Free University of Berlin

• Political Economy
• Behavioral Economics
• Experiments
• Game Theory
• Market Design

Self-Signaling in Voting (with G. Perino, N. Treich, J.-R. Tyran, and S. Wang, forthcoming in the Journal of Public Economics).

Deliberative structures and their impact on voting behavior under social conflict (with J. Brandts and L. Gerhards, Experimental Economics 25, 680–705, 2022 [DOI: 10.1007/s10683-021-09729-4]).

Competition for Context-Sensitive Consumers (with A. Apffelstaedt, Management Science 67(5), 2828-2844, 2020 [DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2020.3675]).

On the Failure of Hindsight-Biased Principals to Delegate Optimally (with D. Danz, D. Kübler and J. Schmid, Management Science 61(8), 1938-1958, 2015 [DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.2014.2087]).

Cheap Talk in the Classroom: How biased grading at school explains gender differences in achievements, career choices, and wages (Review of Economic Studies 76, 1431-1459, 2009 [DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-937X.2009.00551.x]).

Complete Publication List

When Do Proxy Advisors Improve Corporate Decisions? (with B. Büchel and A. F. Wagner).

Public Perception on Authority, Transparency, and Bias of AI in Courts: A Vignette Experiment with Chat Intervention (with H. Hüning and A. Wömmel).

Using Arguments to Persuade: Experimental Evidence (with H. Hüning and S. Wang).

Detecting Argumentative Discourse in Online Chat Experiments (with H. Hüning and S. Wang).

How to Talk about an Out-Group: Effects on In-Group Trust and Out-Group Generosity (with J. Biermann and H. Hüning).

Fairness in Matching Markets: Experimental evidence (with T. Koenig, D. Kuebler, and R. Schmacker).

The Paradox of Integration: A model of relative group standings.

Big Structural Change (DFG)
The DFG research unit “Big Structural Change” (BISC) investigates institutional changes, focusing on those changes that are "big" and can potentially unsettle the societal structure, i.e. the web of rules such as laws and social norms that a society uses to solve its social, political, and economic conflicts of interest, and to organize itself. Find out more about the project here.

Das Verbundprojekt „DEMOS: Democratic Efficacy and the Varieties of Populism in Europe“ wurde von der EU für eine Laufzeit von drei Jahren bewilligt (Principal Investigator: Frau Prof. Dr. Dr. Lydia Mechtenberg, Fachbereich VWL). An dem Projekt unter der Sprecherschaft des ‚Centre for Social Sciences‘ der ‚Hungarian Academy of Sciences‘ (CSS HAS) sind europaweit 15 Institutionen beteiligt, denen für die Projektlaufzeit über 3 Millionen Euro zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Das Projekt verfolgt zwei übergeordnete Zielsetzungen: Zum einen arbeitet es auf ein besseres Verständnis des Phänomens des Populismus hin und zum anderen zielt es darauf, der gesellschaftlichen Herausforderungen des Populismus durch die Operationalisierung des Konzeptes der „democratic efficacy“ zu begegnen.