Christopher Roth

Christopher Roth is an Affiliate Professor at the University of Cologne's Department of Economics and a Distinguished CESifo Affiliate. His research focuses on Behavioral Economics, Information Economics, and Public Economics with a special emphasis on how information asymmetries, cognitive biases, and social preferences shape economic decisions. He is affiliated with the CESifo Research Network's Behavioral Economics area, co-headed by Ernst Fehr and Klaus M. Schmidt. His work explores decision-making under uncertainty, macroeconomic expectations, and the behavioral foundations of public policy design.

His research interests include studying how individuals process economic information (e.g., macroeconomic narratives, health-related stigma, and housing market expectations), how these perceptions influence spending and political attitudes, and the design of effective information policies. He frequently collaborates with institutions like the ifo Institute and has contributed to advancing methodologies for measuring economic beliefs through experiments.

Recent work highlights include investigating 'Social Desirability Bias' in surveys, analyzing the psychological drivers of monetary policy effects, and exploring how economic uncertainty impacts information-seeking behaviors across households and firms. His experimental approaches often combine novel survey designs with real-world policy applications.

Roth's contributions to the field include advancing understanding of 'null result penalties' in academic publishing and pioneering frameworks for evaluating narrative-driven economic behaviors. His research bridges theoretical economic modeling with empirical field experiments to address gaps between economic assumptions and real-world decision-making processes.