We are delighted to share that Christoph Drobner, former PhD student at the Professorship of Economics at TUM Campus Straubing, successfully defended his dissertation in July 2025 and has since joined Central European University (CEU) in Vienna as an Assistant Professor of Economics.
Christoph was part of TUM Campus Straubing from October 2018 to July 2025. His dissertation, “The Evolution and Economic Consequences of Overconfidence”, supervised by Prof. Dr. Sebastian J. Goerg (TUM Campus Straubing) and Prof. Dr. Michael Kurschilgen (UniDistance Suisse), was awarded the highest distinction, Summa Cum Laude.
In his thesis, Christoph investigates how individuals develop overconfident beliefs despite access to objective information and explores the resulting implications for economic behavior. Drawing on a series of controlled laboratory experiments, his work demonstrates that people systematically update beliefs in an overly optimistic manner because favorable self-views generate direct utility. The research further shows that uncertainty prolongs the value of optimism, ego-relevance intensifies biased information processing, and overconfidence leads to hidden economic costs by hindering effective learning about returns to effort. These insights provide a behavioral foundation for understanding why overconfidence is both widespread and persistent in economic decision-making.
Beyond his dissertation, Christoph enriched his doctoral journey with international research experience at the University of Michigan and through fruitful collaborations with scholars worldwide.
We warmly congratulate him on this remarkable achievement and wish him every success in his new role at CEU in Vienna.
