Christopher Roth (economist)

Christopher Roth
Academic background
EducationUniversity of Oxford (MPhil, DPhil)
Academic work
DisciplineBehavioral economics, political economy, macroeconomics
InstitutionsUniversity of Cologne
AwardsReinhard Selten Prize (2018)
Edgeworth Prize (2019)
Hans Kelsen Prize (2025)
Website

Christopher Roth is a behavioral economist and professor of economics and management at the University of Cologne. He studies how people form beliefs and how narratives, attention, and memory shape economic and political decisions.[1] Since 2024, he has been a co-editor of the Journal of the European Economic Association.[2]

Education and career

Roth received an MPhil in economics from Keble College, Oxford, in 2014 and completed his DPhil there in 2018. His thesis, Essays on Beliefs and Economic Behaviour, won Oxford's 2019 Edgeworth Prize.[3]

After a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institute on Behavior and Inequality in Bonn, Roth was an assistant professor at Warwick from 2019 to 2021.[1] He joined the University of Cologne as a professor in July 2021.[4] He has also been affiliated with the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics.[5]

Research

Much of Roth's work concerns narratives and belief formation.[1] A 2024 study with Thomas Graeber and Florian Zimmermann found that stories had more persistent effects on beliefs than statistics, largely because people recalled them more easily.[6][7] Another study compared how more than 10,000 US households and academic economists explained inflation. Household accounts were generally less detailed and more likely to focus on supply-side or political explanations; the narratives people encountered also changed their expectations.[8]

In 2024, Roth received a €1.5 million European Research Council Starting Grant for Viral Narratives, a project on how economic narratives arise, spread, and influence behavior.[9][10]

His other research has examined experimenter-demand effects,[11] beliefs about macroeconomic shocks,[12][13] the design of information-provision experiments,[14] and workers' knowledge of wages at other employers.[15][16]

Recognition

Roth and Johannes Wohlfart received the Verein für Socialpolitik's Reinhard Selten Prize in 2018.[17] In WirtschaftsWoche's 2023 ranking of economists under 40 in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, Roth placed fifth overall and first among those based at a German institution.[18] In June 2026, IDEAS/RePEc ranked him 30th worldwide for research published during the preceding ten years.[19][20] The University of Cologne awarded him its senior Hans Kelsen Prize for law and economics in 2025.[21]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Prof. Dr. Christopher Roth". Department of Economics, University of Cologne. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  2. ↑ "Editorial Board". Journal of the European Economic Association. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  3. ↑ "Christopher Roth awarded 2019 Edgeworth Prize". Department of Economics, University of Oxford. 1 February 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  4. ↑ "Christopher Roth joins ECONtribute". ECONtribute. 22 June 2021. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  5. ↑ "Christopher Roth". Centre for Economic Policy Research. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  6. ↑ Graeber, Thomas; Roth, Christopher; Zimmermann, Florian (2024). "Stories, Statistics, and Memory". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 139 (4): 2181–2225. doi:10.1093/qje/qjae020.
  7. ↑ Van Voorhis, Scott (20 June 2023). "Looking to Leave a Mark? Memorable Leaders Don't Just Spout Statistics, They Tell Stories". Working Knowledge. Harvard Business School. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  8. ↑ Andre, Peter; Haaland, Ingar; Roth, Christopher; Wiederholt, Mirko; Wohlfart, Johannes (2026). "Narratives about the Macroeconomy". The Review of Economic Studies rdag014. doi:10.1093/restud/rdag014.
  9. ↑ "Viral Narratives: The Role of Narratives for Economic Belief Formation". CORDIS. European Commission. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  10. ↑ "Two ERC Starting Grants for Scientists at the University of Cologne". German Center for Research and Innovation New York. 9 October 2024. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  11. ↑ de Quidt, Jonathan; Haushofer, Johannes; Roth, Christopher (2018). "Measuring and Bounding Experimenter Demand". American Economic Review. 108 (11): 3266–3302. doi:10.1257/aer.20171330.
  12. ↑ Andre, Peter; Pizzinelli, Carlo; Roth, Christopher; Wohlfart, Johannes (2022). "Subjective Models of the Macroeconomy: Evidence from Experts and Representative Samples". The Review of Economic Studies. 89 (6): 2958–2991. doi:10.1093/restud/rdab057. hdl:10230/48584.
  13. ↑ Pizzinelli, Carlo (September 2022). "Hall of Mirrors: How Consumers Think about Inflation". Finance & Development. International Monetary Fund. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  14. ↑ Haaland, Ingar; Roth, Christopher; Wohlfart, Johannes (2023). "Designing Information Provision Experiments". Journal of Economic Literature. 61 (1): 3–40. doi:10.1257/jel.20211658.
  15. ↑ Jäger, Simon; Roth, Christopher; Roussille, Nina; Schoefer, Benjamin (2024). "Worker Beliefs About Outside Options". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 139 (3): 1505–1556. doi:10.1093/qje/qjae001.
  16. ↑ Dizikes, Peter (14 March 2024). "Study finds workers misjudge wage markets". MIT News. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  17. ↑ "Hochrangige Preise und Ehrungen: Verein für Socialpolitik ehrt Bonner Wirtschaftswissenschaftler". University of Bonn (in German). 4 September 2018. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  18. ↑ "Die jungen Wilden der VWL" (PDF). WirtschaftsWoche (in German). 15 December 2023. p. 38. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  19. ↑ "Top Economists (Last 10 Years of Publications), as of June 2026". IDEAS/RePEc. June 2026. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  20. ↑ "FAQ for RePEc rankings". IDEAS/RePEc. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
  21. ↑ "Research Prizes 2025". University of Cologne. 28 May 2025. Retrieved 31 July 2026.
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