TUMCS, ECO

Prof. Goerg Appointed Head of Research Department at NIM: TUMCS to Collaborate with the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions e.V.

The Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions e.V. (NIM) will collaborate in the field of behavioral sciences in the future. The aim is to strengthen the interface between academic research and evidence-based advisory services for policymakers, businesses, and society on consumer decision-making. As part of this collaboration, Prof. Dr. rer. pol. Sebastian J. Goerg of TUM Campus Straubing (TUMCS) will assume the position of Head of the Research Department at NIM. Alongside his role at NIM, Sebastian J. Goerg will remain Professor of Economics at the Campus Straubing for Biotechnology and Sustainability at TUM, within the framework of a partial leave arrangement.

Prof. Dr. rer. nat. Sebastian J. Goerg

“Both NIM and TUM will benefit from this collaboration,” says Prof. Goerg. “Joint doctoral projects, research initiatives, and conferences are planned. Students will also benefit, as we intend to integrate NIM into teaching at TUMCS, for example through theses and project-based courses.”

For more than 20 years, Sebastian J. Goerg has been researching how individuals make decisions, with a particular focus on the psychological and economic drivers of motivation, norm compliance, behavioral change, and consumer behavior. His work examines how incentives, beliefs, and social norms shape individual decision-making—from everyday consumption choices to cooperative behavior within organizations and society. His empirical research follows a multi-method approach, combining laboratory, field, and online experiments with survey studies and econometric analyses.

Sebastian J. Goerg earned his doctorate summa cum laude from the University of Bonn in 2010 under the supervision of Nobel laureate Reinhard Selten. His research and academic achievements have been recognized with several awards, including the Heinz Sauermann Prize for the best dissertation in experimental economics, the TUMCS Teaching Excellence Award, and the Supervisory Award of the TUMCS Graduate Center. His academic career has taken him to institutions on three continents, including visiting positions at Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2007–2008) and the University of Michigan (2011–2012), a role as Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods (2009–2012), and a tenure-track professorship at Florida State University (2012–2018), before joining TUM in 2018.

The Nuremberg Institute for Market Decisions e.V. (NIM) investigates, at the intersection of science and practice, how consumer decisions are changing due to new technologies, societal trends, and the application of behavioral science, as well as the resulting micro- and macroeconomic impacts on markets and society. A better understanding of consumer decisions and their consequences helps society, businesses, policymakers, and consumers make better decisions in line with a socially and ecologically oriented market economy and the principle of “prosperity for all.”

Some passages in the press release were taken from the NIM press release, which can be found here: https://www.nim.org/presse/artikel/prof-dr-sebastian-j-goerg-wird-direktor-forschung-am-nim.