François Cochard

François Cochard is a University Professor at the University of Franche-Comté, where he holds dual leadership roles as Head of Research Axis 2 'Individual and collective decisions' at the Research Center on Economic Strategies (CRESE) and Director of the Master's program 'E-procurement and Markets'. His institutional base is CRESE, a prominent economics research center affiliated with the university's Faculty of Law, Economics, Political Science and Management (UFR SJEPG).

Professor Cochard's research centers on experimental and behavioral economics, with particular expertise in game theory applications. His work systematically investigates social preferences through ultimatum and dictator game experiments, examining how context (especially gain versus loss frames) influences generosity and fairness judgments. He extends these foundations to real-world economic domains including auction design (procurement and luxury markets), cartel enforcement mechanisms, charitable giving behavior, and environmental policy. His methodological approach combines controlled laboratory experiments with meta-analytic techniques to identify cross-study patterns.

Analysis of his 15 most recent publications (2015-2025) reveals consistent productivity in high-impact journals, with accelerating output in the last five years. His work shows increasing focus on meta-analytic synthesis (2021-2024) while maintaining experimental rigor. Key thematic clusters include auction theory applications (25% of recent work), social preference investigations (30%), and cartel/competition policy (20%), demonstrating both methodological coherence and substantive breadth within experimental economics.

Professor Cochard currently directs two major funded projects: EcoPo-Pop (ANR JCJC, 2025-2028) and Comtext (Transbio, 2025-2027), indicating active grant acquisition and research leadership. His supervision focuses on Master's level training through the 'E-procurement and Markets' program, with experimental economics as the methodological cornerstone for student research.

He leads the 'Individual and collective decisions' research group at CRESE, which maintains strong collaborative networks across French institutions as evidenced by multi-author publications. The group's work bridges theoretical game theory with practical market applications, particularly in procurement design and behavioral market interventions.