Rosemarie Nagel

Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats

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About

Rosemarie Nagel is a pioneering experimental economist whose research bridges behavioral game theory, strategic reasoning, and the cognitive foundations of decision-making. Best known for introducing the "beauty contest" game—a cornerstone experiment in understanding iterated reasoning and bounded rationality—Nagel has fundamentally shaped how economists model strategic thinking. Her work demonstrates that individuals rarely engage in more than a few levels of recursive reasoning, a finding that has influenced fields from finance to artificial intelligence. With over 8,000 citations, her beauty contest paradigm remains one of the most replicated and cited experiments in behavioral economics. Nagel has also made significant contributions to coalition formation and experimental games, including the "agencies method," which explores how power transfers and cooperation evolve in strategic settings. Her research extends to neuroeconomics, where she investigates the neural underpinnings of strategic thought. A professor at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and ICREA, Nagel’s work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the Spanish National Research Prize. Her insights continue to inspire students and researchers exploring the limits of human rationality in complex interactive environments.