Luca Henkel
My Research
Dissertation: Essays on Social Identity and Moral Behavior
"My research focuses on the determinants and consequences of individual decision-making. Using surveys and experiments, I try to better understand how and why people make certain decisions and avoid others. For example, in one project, I investigate why many people avoid investing their money in the stock market. As it turns out, the image that people have of stockholders is an important driver of their decisions. Many people consider stockholders as greedy, selfish and gambler-like individuals. In fact, we conducted surveys in eleven countries spanning three continents, and in every country, stockholders were viewed in such a way. This negative image causes people to avoid stock investments, because they do not want to associate themselves with individuals having these negative characteristics."
My Future
"I am fortunate to be able to continue working as researcher. As next step, I will be a Postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago and University of CEMA. Next year in Fall I will join the Erasmus University Rotterdam as Assistant Professor of Finance."
My Highlights
"I greatly enjoyed the versatility of research, featuring myriads of challenges and room for development and improvement of one’s ability. Doing research requires analytical thinking about an issue for prolonged amounts of time. Yet, this process leaves much space for creativity, for instance, in the way you approach a problem or design an experiment. Along the way, I learned that I quite like the process of writing up research results, but then also enjoyed the opportunity to convey my research to other researchers and journalists through presentations and interviews. Not only did the research environment at the BGSE and University of Bonn enable me to make these experiences, but the regular interactions with fellow researchers who share a common curiosity about how the world works made it a thoroughly enjoyable experience."
