Geoffrey Tomaino

Year of Entry: 2017

Education

BS Applied Economics, University of Minnesota
MSc Economics, University of Surrey

Research Overview

I conduct research on consumer judgment and decision making. More specifically, I examine how judgment biases harm consumer welfare across two research streams.

In the first stream, I focus on digital marketplaces. For instance, I show that consumers place a lower value on their private personal data when they trade their data for goods (e.g., digital goods such as video streaming) than when they trade their data in cash exchanges, reflecting an intransitivity in privacy preferences. In another paper, I explore whether and why consumers accept non-instrumental explanations for algorithmic service denial decisions that do not help them reverse these service denials.

My second stream deals with the consequences of neglecting friction, or external circumstances which can inhibit one's actions. For example, I document how underestimating the impact of voting frictions, such as distance to a polling place, can increase support for policies which make voting more difficult. I have validated this research in theoretical and applied settings, using incentive compatible lab experiments and field studies.