Researchers from the HSE — Perm participated in the V International Pacific School-Conference on Experimental Economics
Employees of the International Laboratory of Intangible-driven Economy from the HSE — Perm took part in the V International Pacific School-Conference on Experimental Economics held at Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) from September 21 to October 1, 2025.
Junior Research Fellow Evgeniya Shenkman presented research "Analysis of Agent Behavior Based on LLM in Dictator Game". The study was conducted jointly with Petr Parshakov and Nikita Matkin as part of the Russian Science Foundation project "Comparative Analysis of AI-Based Agents and Real Individuals in Economic Decision-Making" (№ 25-18-00539). In the work authors compared AI agents' responses with results from classical trust experiments in the "Dictator" game. It turned out that AI consistently demonstrates greater "generosity" than real participants, and this result is reproducible regardless of the country where the generative model was developed.
"The atmosphere at the conference was excellent: engaging discussions, interesting presentations ranging from game theory and experiments to modern econometric techniques for assessing causal relationships, including quasi-experiments. For me, it was an excellent opportunity to meet researchers working in various fields of behavioral economics"
Junior research fellow Egor Ivanov presented research paper about "Impact of CEO Characteristics on Imitative Behavior Regarding Capital Structure", which was co-authored with Dmitry Kirpishchikov and Marina Zavertayeva. His study focuses on how personal qualities and professional experience of top managers influence companies' strategies regarding capital structure choices relative to industry practices. The findings indicate that CEOs with sector-specific and economic education are less prone to herd behavior when adopting industry standards, whereas those with MBAs tend to conform more readily. Additionally, as tenure within the company increases, CEOs begin to think more independently, diverging from established industry norms.
"This was the most lively conference I can remember: there were no parallel sessions — everyone listened to every presentation and asked thoughtful questions"
The school's program and conference included over 25 presentations across eight scientific sessions. Discussions involved researchers from leading Russian universities such as St. Petersburg, Moscow, Omsk, Tomsk and Vladivostok. Experts from the Central Bank of Russia also shared their studies, while international participants included scholars from the University of Bari (Italy) and Universität Passau (Germany).