Professor Matthew Polisson

I have been a Professor of Economics at the University of Leicester since March 2023. I received my bachelors degree from Harvard University and my doctorate from the University of Oxford. My broad research interests live somewhere in between applied microeconomics and microeconomic theory. My current research focuses mainly on topics in revealed preference analysis -- both theoretical and applied. Recent applications include: decision making under risk/uncertainty, and intertemporal/social choice.

As an applied microeconomist, I have a broad interest in developing and implementing empirical methods that involve taking economic theory to microdata in both observational and experimental settings. Most (but not all) of my work follows in the tradition of (nonparametric) revealed preference. This strand of applied microeconomics has the advantage of being completely agnostic about everything except for the essential components of a given theory or model -- it avoids making auxiliary assumptions (over functional forms and underlying distributions) which conflate primary and ancillary hypotheses.

My research program has several long-term objectives: (i) to extend the approach to new classes of models of single-/multi-agent decision making and consumer behavior; (ii) to develop a coherent framework for capturing departures from various notions of rationality (or errors); and (iii) to bring revealed preference into dialogue with the more conventional econometric approaches to preference identification/estimation, demand prediction, and welfare analysis. To date, I have leveraged the revealed preference approach in applications to decision making under risk/uncertainty, and intertemporal/social choice.

*My research papers and other materials can be found on my personal website.

"Revealed Preferences over Risk and Uncertainty" (with John K.-H. Quah and Ludovic Renou), American Economic Review, 110(6): 1782-1820, 2020. (doi: 10.1257/aer.20180210)

"Afriat's Theorem and Samuelson's 'Eternal Darkness'" (with Ludovic Renou), Journal of Mathematical Economics, 65: 36-40, 2016. (doi: 10.1016/j.jmateco.2016.05.003)

"Testing for Intertemporal Nonseparability" (with Ian Crawford), Journal of Mathematical Economics, 52, 46-49, 2014. (doi: 10.1016/j.jmateco.2014.03.007)

"Revealed Preference in a Discrete Consumption Space" (with John K.-H. Quah), American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, 5(1), 28-34, 2013. (doi: 10.1257/mic.5.1.28)

*My research papers and other materials can be found on my personal website.

EC2010: Introductory Econometrics

Introductory Econometrics introduces the fundamentals of econometric theory -- primarily within the context of the linear regression model -- with an emphasis on the application of econometric techniques to economic data. The primary objectives are to frame economic questions using basic probability/distribution theory and statistics; to test and evaluate hypotheses; to perform estimation and inference; to detect the problems of endogeneity in establishing causality; and to leverage instruments and natural/quasi experiments.

• What Is Econometrics?
• Probability and Statistics
• Probability Theory
• Distributions of Random Variables
• Sample Estimation
• Statistical Inference
• Linear Regression Analysis
• Linear Regression Models
• Ordinary Least Squares
• Causal Analysis
• Endogeneity
• Randomized Controlled Trials
• Instrumental Variables
• Difference-in-Differences