UC economist honoured by research award

Assistant Vice-Chancellor Professor Steve Weaver, Dr Maroš Servátka and Professor Les Oxley

Dr Maroš Servátka (Economics and Finance) has been named the College of Business and Economics’ Early Career Researcher of the Year.

The senior lecturer in economics said it was “a great honour” to be recognised by his colleagues “who are renowned researchers in their respective fields”. “The award is an acknowledgement that I have been producing quality research. Getting a paper accepted into a leading international journal gives a sense of satisfaction but an award such as this one comes only after several such publications and this means a lot to me as it signifies that I am on the right trajectory,” he said.

Dr Servátka joined the staff at Canterbury in 2007. After completing a PhD in economics at the University of Arizona in the United States, he took up a position at the University of Mannheim in Germany before coming to UC. In 2006 he co-founded Virtual Scientific Laboratories, a non-profit organisation aimed at facilitating development, implementation and dissemination of knowledge in the area of economic and behavioural sciences in his home country, Slovakia, and co-founded the Slovak Economic Association, of which he is currently Vice-President. In 2008 he was awarded a fellowship to spend a semester at the George Stigler Center at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and in 2009 he served as guest editor of a special issue of the journal New Zealand Economic Papers (Volume 43, No 2), which focused on experimental economics.

Dr Servátka is an experimental economist “with a behavioural touch” and has been involved in the recent establishment of the New Zealand Experimental Economics Laboratory in the College of Business and Economics with UC colleague Dr Steven Tucker (Economics and Finance).

“I am interested in what ways do fairness considerations and psychological factors, such as spite, guilt or reciprocity govern decisions of economic agents,” he said.

“One of the numerous projects I am working on examines formal and informal agreements in partnerships. Partnerships occur under a variety of circumstances. Sometimes they are reinforced by formal agreements or contracts that induce co-operation through the right set of economic incentives. But more often
agreements are informal, sealed only by a handshake, which requires the parties to trust in their mutual honesty. In this project we’re studying how the incentives in the ensuing relationship shape the agreement between honest players on what actions to take.”

Dr Servátka said he appreciated the support he had received for his research from his department and the College.

“The research environment at UC is exceptional and I have greatly benefited from it.”

Source: Communications & Development, University of Canterbury (2010, Nov 26) UC economist honoured by research award Chronicle, Vol. 45, No. 18, p. 4