Simon Finster

Simon Finster is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Johannes Kepler University Linz, specializing in microeconomic theory, auction and market design, energy economics, and industrial organization. He joined JKU Linz in October 2025 after serving as a postdoc at CREST/Inria FairPlay and completing his PhD at the University of Oxford, Nuffield College under Paul Klemperer's supervision.

His research focuses on developing frameworks for preferences over how goods should be partitioned between buyers in indivisible goods markets, devising pooled testing mechanisms for infectious diseases in populations with heterogeneous welfare weights, and reconciling welfare and revenue concerns in quasi-Fisher markets. He approaches market design through both theoretical analysis and practical implementation in lab and field settings.

Finster is actively involved in the academic community as a co-organizer of GAIMSS (Games and Artificial Intelligence Multidisciplinary Summer School), which brings together researchers from mathematics, computer science, and economics. The 2025 edition will be held at Université Toulouse Capitole with distinguished speakers including José Correa, Penélope Hernández, Tristan Tomala, and Paul Dütting.

His recent publications accepted in top venues include work on selling multiple complements with packaging costs, equitable auctions, and competitive and revenue-optimal pricing with budgets. These publications reflect his focus on bridging theoretical market design with practical applications.

At JKU Linz, he teaches 'Public Finance, Environment and Health' and maintains an active research program with presentations at major international conferences across Europe and North America. His work demonstrates a strong commitment to applying economic theory to solve real-world problems while advancing theoretical understanding in microeconomics and game theory.