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  • Laureates
    • Laureate 2024
    • Prize 2024
    • Past laureates
    • Subsequent Nobel Prize laureates
  • Nomination
    • Nomination 2025
  • The award ceremony
    • The award ceremony 2024
    • The award ceremony 2023
    • The award ceremony 2022
    • The award ceremony 2021
    • The award ceremony 2020
    • The award ceremony 2019
    • The award ceremony 2018
    • The award ceremonies of the past
  • Activities
    • Lecture 2025
    • Workshop 2024
    • Lecture 2024
  • Marcel Benoist
    • The founder
    • The legacy
  • Foundation
    • Foundation
    • News
    • Board of Trustees
    • Patronage Committee and Friends
    • Create excellence!
    • Foundation assets
    • Contact

Ernst Fehr

Laureate 2008: Ernst Fehr

Self-interest and altruism motivate human behaviour

In his experiments, economist Ernst Fehr, a leading exponent of behavioural economics, demonstrates that human beings are not actually homo economicus, rationally optimising their advantage. He shows that solidarity and fairness play a large role in the way economic entities act on the market. This has enormous consequences for the way in which labour markets operate. Professor Fehr’s research findings can also be applied to current economic problems such as banking bonuses or excessive state debt.

Contact

Marcel Benoist Foundation
State Secretariat for Education,
Research and Innovation SERI
Einsteinstrasse 2
CH – 3003 Bern

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