ALBERTO PRATI

I am an Assistant Professor in Economics at UCL, where I teach economic psychology and how to use subjective data to answer public policy questions. I also serve as a Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and as an Associate Researcher at the London School of Economics.

I am a behavioural economist, working on:

Wellbeing: improving the quality of wellbeing data collected in large scale-surveys (including life satisfaction, job satisfaction and financial satisfaction).
(Mis)-judgments: understanding why people form and entertain different opinions (both professional and personal).
Measurement: developing behavioral methods to measure latent constructs (like time preferences, social connectedness, inflation inequality and universal emotions).

You can contact me at:
a[dot]prati[at]ucl[dot]ac[dot]uk
prati[dot]alberto[dot]eu[at]gmail[dot]com

You can hear about my research at:

Wellbeing Seminar (6th February 2026, Oxford)

King's College London (28th May, London)

Research Overview:

Hedonic Recall Bias

You should not ask people how much they earn. If people are happy with their wage, they will overstate it, if they are not, they will understate it.

Time preferences

Duty comes before pleasure, but a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush... With Maria Bigoni, Davide Dragone and Stéphane Luchini, we set an experiment to understand if people are ready to sacrifice for their future.

Inflation and Well-Being

Does money buy happiness? Well, it depends on how much it costs (and not everyone pays the same price). The study shows that inflation inequalities represent a substantial (and, often, overlooked) burden for consumer’s well-being.

Past wellbeing

"Are you happier than last year?" With Claudia Senik, we collected over 250,000 interviews that have asked this and similar questions since the 70s around the world. By comparing actual and recalled life narratives, we uncover opposite biases in recalled life satisfaction.

Memory and mood

Do people forget failures in order to be happier or because they are happy? With Charlotte Saucet, we test the two hypotheses in a lab experiment.

4,000 CO2 tons

With Olivier Chanel and Morgan Raux, we provide an estimate of the environmental impact of the recruitment system in the economics profession, known as the "international job market for economists". It is time to rediscuss this ecologically unsustainable process.

Green Well-Being

A green and happy society: two pigeons with one stone? With Chris Krekel, we review and extend the evidence on the link between pro-environmental behaviors and subjective well-being.

Beliefs about vaccines

Most people try to form an accurate opinion about COVID-19 vaccines. But what happens to your memories and beliefs once you received your jab? To know the answer, Charlotte Saucet and I interviewed over 1,000 UK residents before and after they received a vaccine.

National happiness

Is it possible to raise national happiness? Yes, but only if we consider that people's standards are constantly changing.

Research Keywords:

life satisfaction, subjective well-being, memory, motivated beliefs, motivated reasoning, feeling, emotion, evaluative judgment, bias, carbon footprint, time preferences, measurement, methodology, experiment, survey.

ALBERTO PRATI

You can contact me at: a[dot]prati[at]ucl[dot]ac[dot]uk prati[dot]alberto[dot]eu[at]gmail[dot]com

You can hear about my research at:

Research Overview:

You can contact me at:
a[dot]prati[at]ucl[dot]ac[dot]uk
prati[dot]alberto[dot]eu[at]gmail[dot]com