Career

Real-World Impact: From Business to Policy

Experimental economics offers a broad range of real-world applications—spanning the private sector, public institutions, and academia. Businesses apply experimental insights to refine pricing strategies, enhance consumer engagement, and evaluate marketing effectiveness. Governments and policymakers use experimental evidence to design better regulations, assess policy interventions, and guide economic reforms. In academia, experimental economics drives innovative research by providing rigorous empirical validation of economic theories.

By connecting theory with practice, experimental economics equips students with analytical and methodological skills that are highly valued across sectors. Studying experimental economics opens up diverse career opportunities in Austria and internationally, including roles in:

  • Public Policy & Government Agencies
  • Academic & Research Institutions
  • Central Banks & Financial Regulatory Bodies
  • Consulting & Market Research Firms
  • International Organizations & NGOs
  • Technology Companies & Digital Platforms (e.g., UX Research)

Our Alumni

Ilona Reindl

Policy Officer at Global Responsibility

"Working as a policy officer at the Austrian national platform for development cooperation and humanitarian aid is deeply rewarding to me. My PhD thesis in experimental economics focused on climate change prevention, burden sharing, and economic inclusion—topics that remain highly relevant in my current work. This research not only sharpened my critical thinking but also equipped me with the analytical skills necessary to navigate the complex policy environments I engage with today."

Florian Spitzer

Researcher at the Institute for Advanced Studies Vienna, specializing in applied behavioral economics

"My doctoral studies and my training at the VCEE were crucial for developing my research on how human behavior is shaped by the institutional choice environment and the design of decision situations. The dynamic academic environment and the exchange with inspiring colleagues at the VCEE provided the perfect foundation for my work on promoting behavior change towards more sustainability through choice architecture and other behaviorally inspired interventions."

Miruna Cotet

Postdoc at the Complexity Science Hub, Vienna

“My training at the VCEE helped me develop my skills and taste for doing research. I took two classes with VCEE faculty in Behavioral and Experimental Economics, worked as a lab assistant at VCEE, and wrote an experimental Master’s thesis. This set me on track for my academic career which led me to the University of Maastricht and Ohio State University. Today, I design experiments to study collective adaptation and provide insights to improve group decision-making and coordination in real-world contexts.”

Axel Sonntag

Senior Manager at Accenture

"My time as an Assistant Professor at the Vienna Center for Experimental Economics (VCEE) was pivotal in shaping my research approach. The center’s emphasis on behavioral and experimental economics, combined with its collaborative and intellectually vibrant environment as well as its international spirit, helped me build skills that have proven invaluable. These capabilities now allow me to address complex analytical challenges in applying Artificial Intelligence to corporate strategy and governance - challenges I could not have foreseen at the time."