Our current research activities focus on the following areas:
Genoeconomics
This emerging research field was co-founded by researchers working at or being affiliated with EURIBEB. At the intersection of molecular genetics and microeconomics, research in this field aims at three goals: First, to identify specific genetic factors that are responsible for the observed heritability of many economic preferences and outcomes. Second, to identify the many ways in which individual behavior and social institutions moderate or amplify genetic differences. And third, incorporating genetics into economic analysis to help economists identify and measure important causal pathways (which may or may not be genetic). Our research in this field has until now focused on (amongst others) educational attainment, subjective well-being, and self-employment. This work is currently supported by (amongst others) a research grant from the New Opportunities for Research Funding Agency Cooperation in Europe (NORFACE-DIAL Grant 462-16-100) and the European Research Council (Starting Grant GEPSI 946647). Key publications of EURIBEB in this field of research include:
- Beauchamp et al. (2011), Molecular genetics and economics, Journal of Economic Perspectives.
- Rietveld et al. (2013), GWAS of 126,559 individuals identifies genetic variants associated with educational attainment, Science.
- Van Kippersluis & Rietveld (2018), Pleiotropy-robust Mendelian Randomization, International Journal of Epidemiology.
- Linnér et al. (2019), Genome-wide association analyses of risk tolerance and risky behaviors in over one million individuals identify hundreds of loci and shared genetic influences, Nature Genetics.
- Rietveld, Slob & Thurik (2021), A decade of research on the genetics of entrepreneurship: a review and view ahead, Small Business Economics.
NeuroPsychoeconomics
This line of research is very new and is inspired by the EURIBEB setup: collaboration between schools of EUR and taking entrepreneurship as the "test" phenotype. For this purpose, we obtained generous funding from a "Research Excellence Initiative" grant from the executive board of EUR. This line of research focuses on the relation between neurophysiological and psychological markers (e.g., validated psychiatric symptom scores) such as attention deficit and hyperactivity (ADHD) symptoms and economic, non-clinical, behavior like entrepreneurship. Knowledge of this relation could advance the field of occupational choice as well as that of psychology, and physical and mental well-being (happiness). A mismatch between the real occupational choice and the one predicted by a psychological profile may be detrimental to one’s mental and physical well-being (happiness). In this research line, neuroscience techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG) are employed to study their association with these psychological markers. Key publications of EURIBEB in this field of research include:
- Hessels, Rietveld & Van der Zwan (2017), Self-employment and work-related stress: the mediating role of job demand and job control, Journal of Business Venturing.
- Hessels, Rietveld, Thurik, Van der Zwan (2018), Depression and entrepreneurial exit, Academy of Management Perspectives.
- De Groot & Van Strien (2019), Event‐related potentials in response to feedback following risk‐taking in the hot version of the Columbia Card Task, Psychophysiology.
- Wiklund et al. (2020), Entrepreneurship, clinical psychology and mental health: an exciting and promising new field of research, Academy of Management Perspectives.
- Patel, Rietveld & Verheul (2021), Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and earnings in later-life self-employment, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice.