The School of Economics and the Centre for Behavioural and Experimental Social Science (CBESS) at the University of East Anglia will be holding our 12th annual workshop on behavioral game theory on July 9th and 10th 2026. The conference will be held online. Our theme this year is complexity. We are interested in papers that study the effects of complexity on play in games as well as closely related topics such as simplicity (in the spirit of OSP mechanisms), failure of contingent reasoning, and the use of mental models. The broader purpose of the workshop is to present current experimental and theory research related to the topic of behavioral game theory. All papers that lie at the intersection of game theory and behavioral economics will be considered, but we will give priority to papers that fit with this year’s theme.
We are pleased to announce this year’s plenary speakers:
Emanuel Vespa, University of California, San Diego
David Huffman, Cornell University
All papers presented at this conference by junior researchers (PhD students, post-docs, and faculty who are no more than 7 years from completion of their PhD) will be eligible for the first annual Robert Sugden Best Paper Award. This prize is given in honor of UEA’s Robert Sugden, a pioneer in behavioral economics and one of the founding fathers of experimental economics in the UK. It is intended to honor an outstanding example of research in either experimental economics or behavioral theory by a young researcher. The winner of this prize will receive 200 UK pounds. All researchers who wish to be considered for this prize must submit a completed paper. Published papers will be considered if the publication date is within a year of the conference date (July 2025 or later). In your application, please clearly indicate that you wish to be considered for the prize. The winner of the prize will be announced at the end of the conference.
This year’s edition of the workshop will be conducted online. We plan to hold sessions in the late morning and afternoon (UK time), making it easy for scholars in the US and Europe to participate. All individuals, regardless of whether they are presenters, are invited to participate by Zoom. There is no fee, but you will need to register to receive the Zoom link. Talks will be relatively long (40 minutes) to allow researchers to go into more depth on their work and to give more time for discussion.
If you would like to present a paper, please submit an extended abstract here. A completed paper will be necessary for consideration for the Sugden Prize. The deadline for submission of presentations is May 14th, and we will let you know if your paper has been accepted for presentation by May 28th.
For more information on the workshop, please click here. If you would like to register to participate, please click here. Registration will open on May 28th. All participants, including speakers, will need to register (this is how we know to send you the Zoom link). We will send out a Zoom link to all participants a week before the conference.
We are looking forward to this workshop and hope you will be attending!
David J. Cooper, University of Iowa & University of East Anglia
Stefan Penczynski, University of East Anglia
David J. Cooper
Tippie and Rollins Chair in Economics
Department of Economics | Tippie College of Business
The University of Iowa
S224 PBB | Iowa City, Iowa 52242
phone: (319) 467-4466
email: david-j...@uiowa.edu
website: https://sites.google.com/view/davidjcooper13/home