ALBERTO PRATI

I am an Assistant Professor in Economics at UCL.
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 (Which social factors influence feelings of happiness and misery? How should we measure these feelings? And how can these measures help guide public policies?);
memory and beliefs (What role does memory play in the formation of beliefs? How beliefs and desires shape each other? Why do people disagree?);
sustainability and future orientation (What can institutions do to fight climate change? When and why people sacrifice for the future? How can we measure it?)

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 meet me at:

"New Frontiers in Subjective Well-being Measurement" workshop, (OECD, March 4th, Paris)

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 Well-Being

"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.

COVID-19 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.

Self-Serving Bias

"Self-serving bias” refers to situations where people distort information in a way which is favorable for themselves. But how can we test it in the lab? I present some criticisms and a solution.

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 meet me 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