Our podcast series, Breakthroughs, dedicates a special episode to the launch of a new elective on sports and commerce for students. Titled “Sport & Business,” this six-month program includes theoretical work followed by fieldwork in partnership with the French professional football club Racing Club de Lens. Professor Luc Arrondel oversees the academic content of the elective. This researcher shares his pedagogical approach centered on the economics of football. In the second part of the podcast, we follow the first gathering of the Sports Economy Summit titled Sport Definition. HEC leaders, students, and alumni attended sessions dedicated to the school's research, teaching, and actions in this flourishing sector.
How good are students at using tools like ChatGPT? In particular, can they properly evaluate and correct the responses provided by ChatGPT to enhance their performance? An experiment on HEC Paris students set to find out. Its results contribute to the debate on the consequences of the use of ChatGPT in education, and in work in general.
On the eve of the 11th annual D-TEA conference, promoting Dialogues between Theory, Experimental findings and Applications of decision-making (hence the acronym), we talk to its co-organizer Professor Itzhak Gilboa. Last year, the professor of decisions sciences was ranked by Stanford University in the world’s top six theoretical economists. Gilboa’s research centers on decision under uncertainty and decision models whereby uncertainty can’t be quantified. That is called non-Bayesian decision models – as opposed to the Bayesian approach which assigns probabilities based on experience or best guesses. The HEC Paris academic questions these axioms, or self-evident truths. He believes his research can help answer unforeseen crises, called black swans, like the war in Ukraine, health pandemics or the climate crisis. Extracts.
The latest developments in artificial intelligence are often allied to the prospect of a better world, with more powerful, more rational algorithms straightening out human flaws. The idea often floated is that public policy will be more effective because it will be better informed and more responsive. Likewise, it is said that medicine will deliver speedier, more accurate diagnoses. But where are we when it comes to the subject of consumption? Can algorithms be used to steer consumers towards better, more enlightened – and less impulsive – choices? Why not? Online assessments about a product or service, for instance, help information flow more smoothly. But we are also heading down a new path: myriad algorithms are now the power behind “nudges”, those fine details about the shopping environment that insidiously guide the choices made by consumers.
HEC Paris Ph.D. student Fan Wang unveiled a new definition of ambiguity attitude during the latest D-TEA conference on decision making, organized by HEC Paris Professor Itzhak Gilboa. This was acknowledged and congratulated by decision-theory expert Peter Wakker. In this interview, Mr Wang explains what does he brings both to the field of decision sciences and to practice.
Uncertainty is an invisible trap, set to blind our capacity to avoid nonsense and create actual intelligence. Why invisible? Because uncertainty is powered by what we do not know, which is particularly difficult to become aware of. Anne-Sophie Chaxel, HEC Paris Associate Professor of Marketing and expert in cognitive biases, gives three objectives to keep in mind to embrace uncertainty, along with practice tool boxes to create intelligence.
Why different countries have made very different decisions to fight the coronavirus? What are the potential consequences of such crisis on the psychology of the population? In this interview, Anne-Sophie Chaxel, HEC Paris Associate Professor of Marketing specialized in consumer behavior and decision-making, explains the different approaches of governments toward their responsibility, and the biases behind non-optimal behaviors and decisions. She also shares her recommendation regarding decision-making processes.
Researchers have investigated the effect of the transfer of intellectual property rights from researchers to employing universities, in the USA and in Europe. While the effect of this act is positive in the US (more production and therefore competitiveness), the effect is negative in Europe (fewer creations). Interview with Thomas Astebro, professor of entrepreneurship at HEC Paris.
Many call for a systematic publication of scientific negative results in order to make the production of scientific knowledge more efficient. Raphaël Lévy, Assistant Professor in the Economics and Decision Sciences Department, explains why such dissemination of knowledge may actually be beneficial, but also points to potential undesired consequences.
To fight against health problems like obesity, smoking, and alcohol abuse, governments are experimenting with new ways of regulating lifestyles. These methods, or incentives, usually involve a “nudge” that takes advantage of the irrational patterns in human behavior to encourage people to make the least harmful choices for their health.
