Peter Wakker

Professor Peter Wakker is a leading academic in behavioral economics and decision theory at the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE), Erasmus University Rotterdam. He specializes in decision-making under uncertainty, particularly focusing on ambiguity, risk, and prospect theory. His work bridges economics, psychology, statistics, and mathematics, with publications in top journals such as the Journal of Economic Theory and Nature Physics. Wakker has collaborated with Nobel laureates and holds prestigious awards, including the Frank P. Ramsey Medal (2013) and an honorary doctorate from the University of St. Gallen (2016).

His research addresses foundational aspects of decision theory, including axiomatic frameworks for ambiguity, probability weighting, and utility functions. He has developed innovative methods like the Prince incentive system for measuring preferences and contributed to resolving paradoxes like Rabin’s calibration problem. Wakker’s work emphasizes practical applications in insurance, medical decision-making, and policy analysis, often advising media on risk communication.

Wakker directs the Behavioral Economics research group at ESE and teaches advanced courses on risk and ambiguity, as well as behavioral economics. His interdisciplinary approach reflects collaborations with scholars in psychology, health sciences, and finance. He maintains an active role in academic leadership, including editorial work and conference organization.

Key achievements include being ranked among the top 2% of global researchers (Stanford University list), one of the most influential economists (Ioannidis et al., 2020), and the co-author of a seminal paper in Journal of Economic Theory (Köbberling & Wakker, 2005), recognized as one of the 50 most influential papers in its history.