Welcome

The Research Unit in Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics (RUBEN) is a group of researchers who use the methodology of experimental economics, both in the lab and the field, to examine the role that preferences, beliefs, and constraints play in economic decision-making. 

RUBEN serves as an anchor in Africa around which to concentrate research leadership, training, and technical resources in the use of economic experiments, and the application of principles of behavioural economics in policy design and implementation, for the benefit of researchers throughout the continent. We regularly host visiting researchers, and run research workshops and conferences that are attended by some of the preeminent behavioural and experimental economists.

The research programme of RUBEN is varied, including work on risk, uncertainty, discounting behaviour, social preferences, climate change, subjective beliefs, public goods provision, elephant conservation, and the use of behavioural interventions to enhance policy implementation. The common strand in this research is the use of experimental and behavioural economic techniques, together with microeconomic theory, to better understand these issues. 

A key aspect of RUBEN activity is training in behavioural and experimental methods. Our goal is to develop expertise in Africa, among Africans, to study the problems of Africa. RUBEN hosts training workshops for scholars from the rest of the continent, as well as for public and private sector parties. In addition, we provide scholarship support and funds running costs for a number of postgraduate students who have completed postgraduate theses using economic experiments.

Since its launch in 2011, RUBEN has had a close, collaborative relationship with the Center for the Economic Analysis of Risk (CEAR) at Georgia State University in the US. This relationship was formalised in 2016 by an agreement that RUBEN and CEAR signed to establish CEAR Africa under the School of Economics at UCT. CEAR Africa provides a formal channel through which RUBEN and CEAR collaborate to fund and supervise students, run training and research workshops, facilitate academic exchanges, and conduct joint research projects. The Research Director of CEAR Africa is Prof. Glenn W. Harrison who is the Director of CEAR at GSU. For more information about the Center for the Economic Analysis of Risk, please visit their website.