Tobias Werner

My single-authored paper "Algorithmic and Human Collusion" has been accepted for publication at the Economic Journal. More than happy about this outcome and the process of getting there. I won't summarize the paper yet again on here, but a small anecdote about the paper🧵

Wrapped up a great week of regulatory outreach! Presented to the @CMAgovUK and @NZComCom on how human-machine market interactions can dampen competition. Thanks to Rajssa Mechelli & David Shaharudin Shahar-Yu for hosting!

@BallersBav @DICEHHU In Düsseldorf Bilk Nähe Karolingerplatz. Weiß nicht mehr genau wie der Laden hieß

@_ToFeWe @DICEHHU Wo war der Laden? Frag für nen Freund

Frisch gelandet in Düsseldorf für die @DICEHHU competition policy conference. Erstmal ein Taxi Teller!

Don’t miss this exciting opportunity: join the C‑BEAR Interdisciplinary #SummerSchool2026 at the @unisouthampton for a practical introduction to social‑science experimentation-no prior experience needed.#ExperimentalEconomics 📅 29 June–3 July 🔗 ncrm.ac.uk/training/show.…

Enjoy your pancakes!

Super thankful for all the feedback I got during the time from my supervisors and colleagues. Also such a pleasant editorial process at the @EJ_RES with @steffenhuck and the three referees. Thanks to them too.

Many of the papers I started during my PhD are in a similar area, so it was very influential indeed. Also, this paper served me as my job market paper 2 1/2 times and I have to say: Despite what some people say about their JMP, I don't hate it yet but actually love it still.

I would have probably come across those papers one way or another, but still, the nudge in the class of a senior professor telling me "might be worthwhile to look at" was super powerful for me. So if you happen to read this: Thank you for this motivation @frankverboven.

...how humans play against RL algos. Right after the class, I started reading Calvano et al. and the related paper by Timo Klein and started taking online classes on reinforcement learning.

My single-authored paper "Algorithmic and Human Collusion" has been accepted for publication at the Economic Journal. More than happy about this outcome and the process of getting there. I won't summarize the paper yet again on here, but a small anecdote about the paper🧵

I immediately thought of the question: "But what about the counterfactual of human collusion?" Later, when learning about the ongoing work from my soon-to-be PhD supervisor @hans_normann and Martin Sternberg on human-algorithm interaction, the second research question was added.

He ended with a statement like, "This might be a worthwhile area to work on for new PhD students," and indeed it was.

And that's right, but in the last ~15 minutes, he presented some slides on the paper by @EmilioC_ and co-authors which was later published in the AER on RL-algorithms in pricing environments.

I actually started working on this paper in the first week of my PhD. It was a short lecture series at @DICEHHU by @frankverboven on estimation of market power and conduct. Not strongly related to what I do in my paper, you might think.

Considering outsourcing my ARC Raiders inventory management to Claude Cowork

@ScienceMagazine x.com/i/status/19526…

LLMs and agents are reshaping the landscape of social science research. Our preprint on "LLM Pollution" is featured in @ScienceMagazine's new piece on how AI is upending online studies. science.org/content/articl…

I found out that something doesn't work very well. In the interest of not burying it so that someone else goes down this rabbit hole again, maybe I will try to write a paper.

Our department hosted a great seminar this week by my colleague @_ToFeWe titled "Experimental Evidence That Conversational AI Can Steer Consumer Behavior Without Detection". Eye-opening insights into conversational AI and consumer choices! #AIResearch #BehavioralEconomics

💡 Takeaway: Humans-in-the-loop are key. When people are involved, even a ``collusive'' AI can lead to more competition and lower prices . Full paper: arxiv.org/abs/2510.27636

🔧 Why? (2/2): In RECOMMENDATION, adoption is high, but adherence is low. Participants frequently override the AI's advice, resulting in longer price wars than in the baseline.

📣 New paper! "Delegate Pricing Decisions to an Algorithm? Experimental Evidence" with @hans_normann, Nina Rulié, & @ostypa We study what happens when humans delegate to a collusive algorithm, and AI pricing adoption becomes a strategic choice! arXiv: arxiv.org/abs/2510.27636