Economic Theory IProf. Dr. Sebastian Ebert

Sebastian Ebert joined Heidelberg University in April 2022 as a Professor of Economics and Head of a Chair in Economic Theory. Previously, he held positions as Professor of Microeconomics at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management and as Associate Professor of Finance at Tilburg University. His research focuses on the psychology of financial and other decisions under uncertainty, thereby contributing to the growing fields of behavioral economics, finance, and insurance. Much of his work is interdisciplinary and merges insights from economics, statistics, mathematics, and psychology.

Ebert has won several prizes for his research and published in leading economics and management journals, including the American Economic Review, Journal of Economic Theory, Management Science, Operations Research, and the Review of Financial Studies. He is a member of the editorial boards of two leading insurance journals, the Journal of Risk and Insurance and the Geneva Risk and Insurance Review. From 2019 to 2024, the European Research Council supports his research on low-probability, high-impact risks.

Ebert has taught at the Bachelor, Master, MBA, Executive MBA, and PhD levels, at various universities and business schools, and to practitioners (e.g., to the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank AG). His course on Behavioral Finance won him the Best Lecturer award of the Tilburg School of Economics and Management at Tilburg University.

Ebert received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Bonn (summa cum laude). He has degrees in economics (M.Sc., with highest honors), statistics (M.Sc.), and mathematics (B.Sc.).

Ebert, S., Wei, W. & X.Y. Zhou (2020): Weighted Discounting – On Group Diversity, Time-inconsistency, and Consequences for Investment. Journal of Economic Theory, 189, Article 105089.

Ebert, S. (2020): Decision Making When Things Are Only a Matter of Time. Operations Research, 68(5), 1564–1575.

Baele, L., Driessen, J., Ebert, S., Londono, J. & O. Spalt (2019): Cumulative Prospect Theory, Option Returns, and the Variance Premium. Review of Financial Studies, 32(9), 3667–3723.

Ebert, S., Nocetti, D. & H. Schlesinger (2018): Greater Mutual Aggravation. Management Science, 64(6), 2809–2811.

Ebert, S. & P. Strack (2015): Until the Bitter End: On Prospect Theory in a Dynamic Context. American Economic Review, 105(4), 1618–1633.

Ebert, S. (2013): Even (mixed) Risk Lovers Are Prudent: Comment. American Economic Review, 103(4), 1536–1537.

Ebert, S. & D. Wiesen (2011): Testing for Prudence and Skewness Seeking. Management Science, 57(7), 1334–1349.