Ellman, Matthew

Matthew's core research interests lie at the intersection of organization theory, contracts, markets and the media, with a focus on ethics, motivation and autonomy. His aim is to draw lessons from the law, sociology, politics, psychology and philosophy to enrich economic analysis. He mostly constructs game theoretic models and applies the methods of experimental economics and mechanism design to study welfare and distributional justice. Matthew is currently investigating the promises and pitfalls associated with digital platforms and technologies, ranging from social media to digital inclusion, crowdfunding to the coordination of social commitments, as well as the impact of artificial intelligence and cryptographic identification on social and economic relations.

Matthew joined the institute in 2010, having studied in the UK and the US before working at the universities of Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and Pompeu Fabra (UPF). He has published in economics journals including the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of the European Economic Association, the Economic Journal and the Journal of Economic Theory as well as journals in law and economics, development and experiments. He has been a co-editor of the Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, organizer of international conferences on the media, digital economics and the Spanish "Jornadas" of Industrial Economics, PI and member of multiple national research grants and PhD adviser. He also serves on scientific, prize and local committees, including the IAE environmental committee and the BSE and IAE gender committees.