Steven Bosworth, Ph.D.

Steven studied Economics and Mathematics at Truman State University (United States), where he graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in 2008. Subsequently he began PhD studies in economics at the University of Pittsburgh, focusing on experimental, public and urban economics. He received his MA in 2010, and defended his dissertation in 2013. Steven’s research uses experimental methods to understand how generalized trust and ‘social capital’ impacts economic decision-making, particularly in coordination problems. His research published in the Journal of Economic Psychology shows that people who score higher on standard measures of generalized trust are more likely to invest when success depends on a partner’s investment. This may help to explain why generalized trust predicts higher economic growth and institutional performance. Work in progress with Prof. Randall Walsh (U Pittsburgh) uses a unique empirical design to examine the impact of property crime on social capital. Steven has strong interests in how beliefs affect decision-making, and has papers exploring the role of higher-order beliefs in coordination games, and ‘level-k’ thinking in auctions (with Hong Wu, U Pittsburgh). Since 2013, Steven is a postdoctoral fellow at the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, working with Prof. Dennis Snower to understand how people’s motivations affect economic decision making.