Alex Rees-Jones is an Associate Professor in the Business Economics and Public Policy Department at Wharton. He also serves on the Board of Editors of the American Economic Review, as an Associate Editor at Management Science, as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, and as a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Cornell University in 2013 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Bureau of Economic Research in 2014.
In his research, Alex explores the ways in which psychological biases and imperfect cognition affect economic policy analysis. A major topic area of interest is public finance, examining how citizen’s imperfect responses to tax incentives affect the assessment of tax policy. Another line of research explores similar forces in market design, examining how market participants’ imperfect understanding of assignment procedures affects the outcomes that these markets determine. Alex's work in these domains has appeared in top academic journals in economics, management, and the general sciences.
At Wharton, Alex teaches an introductory course on Public Finance and Policy to the undergraduates and MBAs. He also teaches PhD-level courses on public economics and on policy applications of behavioral economics.
If you are a student looking to meet with me, you can find my availability and schedule a time by clicking this link.
The Negative Consequences of Loss-Framed Performance Incentives
with Lamar Pierce and Charlotte Blank
Accepted at American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
[Web Appendix]
Immigration Lottery Design: Engineered and Coincidental Consequences of H-1B Reforms
with Parag Pathak and Tayfun Sönmez
Accepted at Review of Economics and Statistics
[Journal Webpage][NBER Digest Summary]
Behavioral Incentive Compatibility in Empircally Informed Welfare Analysis: An Introductory Guide
Journal of Economic Perspectives, 2024, 38(4): 155-174.
[Journal Webpage]
Correlation Neglect in Student-to-School Matching
with Ran Shorrer and Chloe Tergiman
American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 2024, 16(3): 1 - 42.
[Journal Webpage][Web Appendix][Materials Appendix][EC20 Extended Abstract]
Reversing Reserves
with Parag Pathak and Tayfun Sönmez
Management Science, 2023, 69(11): 6940 - 6953.
[Journal Webpage][Web Appendix]
Behavioral Economics in Education Market Design: A Forward-Looking Review
with Ran Shorrer
Journal of Political Economy Microeconomics, 2023, 1(3): 557 - 613.
[Journal Webpage]
Price Isn't Everything: Behavioral Response around Changes in Sin Taxes
with Kyle Rozema
National Tax Journal, 2023, 76(1): 5 - 35.
[Journal Webpage][Web Appendix]
Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Support for
Safety-Net Expansion
with John D'Attoma, Amedeo Piolatto, and Luca Salvadori
Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 2022, 200: 1090-1104.
[Journal Webpage][Web Appendix]
Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: It Is Not Who You Teach, But How You Teach
with George Orlov, Douglas McKee, James Berry, Austin Boyle, Thomas DiCiccio, Tyler Ransom, and Jörg Stoye
Economics Letters, 2021, 202: 109812.
[Journal Webpage]
Measuring "Schmeduling"
with Dmitry Taubinsky
Review of Economic Studies, 2020, 87(5): 2399-2438.
[Journal Webpage][Web Appendix][Survey Appendix]
An Experimental Investigation of Preference Misrepresentation in the
Residency Match
with Samuel Skowronek
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2018, 115(45): 11471-11476.
[Journal Webpage][Web Appendix]
Attention Variation and Welfare: Theory and Evidence from a Tax Salience Experiment
with Dmitry Taubinsky
Review of Economic Studies, 2018, 85(4): 2462-2496.
[Journal Webpage][Web Appendix]
Suboptimal Behavior in Strategy-Proof Mechanisms: Evidence from the Residency Match
Games and Economic Behavior, 2018, 108: 317-330.
[Journal Webpage][SSRN Version]
Taxing Humans: Pitfalls of the Mechanism Design Approach and Potential Resolutions
with Dmitry Taubinsky
Tax Policy and the Economy, 2018, 32(1): 107-133.
[Journal Webpage]
Quantifying Loss-Averse Tax Manipulation
Review of Economic Studies, 2018, 85(2): 1251-1278.
[Journal Webpage][Non-technical Summary]
Mistaken Play in the Deferred Acceptance Algorithm: Implications for Positive Assortative Matching
American Economic Review: Papers and Proceedings, 2017, 107(5): 225-229.
[Journal Webpage]
Can
Marginal Rates of Substitution Be Inferred From Happiness Data? Evidence from
Residency Choices
with
Daniel Benjamin,
Ori Heffetz, and
Miles Kimball
American Economic Review, 2014, 104(11): 3498 - 3528.
[Journal Webpage][Web Appendix][Survey Appendix]
What
Do You Think Would Make You Happier? What Do You Think You Would Choose?
with
Daniel Benjamin,
Ori Heffetz, and
Miles Kimball
American Economic Review, 2012, 102(5): 2083 - 2110.
[Journal Webpage]
Addressing Personal-Income-Tax Manipulation with Tools from Psychology
Wharton Public Policy Initiative Issue Brief, 2017, 5(9): 1-6.
Tax Psychology and the Timing of Charitable Giving Deadlines
with Dmitry Taubinsky
The Urban Institute, 2016.
COVID-19 Changed Tastes for Safety-Net Programs
with John D'Attoma, Amedeo Piolatto, and Luca Salvadori
A significantly revised version was published as "Experience of the COVID-19 Pandemic and Support for
Safety-Net Expansion."
[NBER WP] [Web Appendix]
Diminishing Sensitivity to Outcomes: What Prospect Theory Gets Wrong about Diminishing Sensitivity to Price
with Joshua Lewis, Uri Simonsohn, and Joe Simmons
Loss Aversion Motivates Tax Sheltering: Evidence from U.S. Tax Returns
A significantly revised version was published as "Quantifying Loss-Averse Tax Manipulation."
[SSRN WP] [Web Appendix]
Do People Seek to Maximize Happiness? Evidence from New Surveys
with
Daniel Benjamin,
Ori Heffetz, and
Miles Kimball
A significantly revised version was published as "What Do You Think Would Make You Happier? What Do You Think You Would Choose?"
[NBER WP] [Web Appendix]