I received my PhD in Economics at Ben Gurion University in Israel under the supervision of Prof. Aner Sela and Prof. Oscar Volij. Between 2015-2018 I was a post-doctoral fellow at the Swiss Institute for Empirical Economic Research (SEW) chaired by Prof. Dr. Michael Lechner at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.
My main research interests are sports economics, contest theory behavioral economics and operational research. In my research I have used theoretical and empirical approaches. My area of theoretical research involves modelling of multi-stage contests by means of winner-take-all models in general and all-pay structures in particular.
Based on my knowledge on contest theory, I empirically test some theoretical predictions about human’s behavior in high stakes situations in real tournament settings. I am also very interested in studying organizational issues in tournaments such as the effect of scheduling on performance.
I have used different sports to study human’s behavior. In particular in my empirical studies I have used data on soccer, biathlon, judo, tennis, wrestling, gymnastics, ski jumping and others.
I have used sports related research questions in all my papers that were published in journals like European Journal of Operational Research, European Economic Review, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Journal of Law Economics and Organization, Economic Inquiry, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Emotion, Journal of Economic Psychology, Social Choice and Welfare, Theory and Decision, Emotion, Judgment and Decision Making, Journal of Sports Economics and European Sport Management Quarterly.
In addition, I am a co-founding co-editor-in-chief of Sports Economics Review (with Stefan Szymanski) and an associate editor in Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics and Empirical Economics.
As of May 2023, I am listed in the top 6% of authors in economics worldwide according to IDEAS/RePEc (central index of economic and finance research) based on the last 10 years of research output. In 2023, I won a "Best Researcher Award" of Molde University College (15,000 NOK, approx. 1,500 USD). In 2022, I won the research dissemination award of Molde University College (15,000 NOK, approx. 1,500 USD). In 2020, I won a competitive stipend to supervise a PhD student at Molde University Colege (400,000 EUR). In 2016, I won a competitive International Postdoctoral Fellowship of the University of St. Gallen (300,000 CHF). In 2014, I was awarded as a "Winner of the 2014 Wingate Congress of Exercise and Sport Sciences Young Researcher's Award".
To bring research closer to the broad audience, I have produced short YouTube videos on sports related research. You can watch them on my YouTube channel. I also regularly write columns for Psychology Today. Finally, several of my studies were covered by international media (Times, Harvard Business Review, ABC News, BBC, Daily Mail, Yahoo, etc…).
You can find an additional information on my website.
My YouTube Channel.
My Twitter.
My CV.