Christoph Engel

Christoph Engel is a Professor at the University of Bonn and holds the Chair for Experimental Law and Economics at the Erasmus School of Law, Rotterdam, since 2013. He has been a Scientific Member of the Max Planck Society and Director at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn, since 2003. His research focuses on Empirical Legal Studies, Experimental Law and Economics, and AI and the Law.

Engel earned his doctoral degree in Tübingen (1988) and post-doctoral degree in Hamburg (1992). He has held academic positions at the University of Osnabrück (1992), the University of Bonn (2003–present), and Erasmus University Rotterdam (2013–present). He was also a Visiting Scholar at ETH Zurich in 2024.

His recent work explores judicial behavior, behavioral perspectives in human rights law, and efficient resource allocation without absolute property rights. Notably, his book Deliberate Ignorance (MIT Press) investigates strategic information avoidance.

Scientific contributions include

• Member of the Academia Europaea
• Honorary Professor at the University of Osnabrück (2004)
• Chair of the Advisory Board, Amsterdam Center for Law and Economics
• Member of the Scientific Council at Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW), Mannheim

Engel's research group includes Senior Research Fellows (e.g., Andreas Glöckner) and Research Fellows (e.g., Tom Brinker), focusing on behavioral law and economics experiments.