doc. PhDr. Julie Chytilová, Ph.D.

doc. PhDr. Julie Chytilová, Ph.D.

Posts:

  • Department of Institutional Economics
  • Academic Council

E-mail: julie.chytilova@fsv.cuni.cz , julie.chytilova@fsv.cuni.cz

Telephone: +420 222 112 318

Rooms: No. O410, Opletalova 26

ResearcherID: J-8621-2015

Scopus Author ID: 8430833900

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-8474-8192

CV

Education

2004-2009 Ph.D. in Economics at the Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University

2002-2004 Master's degree in Economics at the Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University

1999-2002 Bachelor's degree in Economics at the Institute of Economic Studies, Charles University

Job history

2016+ Associate Professor, Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies

2016+ Director of Undergraduate Studies, Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies

2015+ Head of the Department of Institutional Economics, Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies

2015+ Researcher, Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences

2024+ IZA, Research fellow

2024+ CEPR, Research fellow

2022+ Scientific Council of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, member

2015-2023 CEPR, Research affiliate

2015+ CEPR, research affiliate

2009-2016 Assistant Professor, Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Economic Studies

 

Research visits

July 2023 – Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn (one week visit)

February 2020 – March 2020: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Economics

February 2018 – April 2018: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Economics

June 2016: University of Cape Town, School of Economics (one month visit)

May 2016: Harvard University, Department of Human Evolutionary Biology (one week visit)

January 2015 - June 2015: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Economics

September 2007 – June 2008: New York University, Department of Economics

May 2006: London School of Economics, STICERD (one week visit)

 

Invited talks

University of Padua (2024); Johannes Kepler University of Linz (2024); Norwegian School of Economics, FAIR, Bergen (2024); 19th Annual Workshop of the Households in Conflict Network – keynote, Brussels (2023, scheduled); Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, Bonn (2023); Berlin Behavioral Economics Seminar Series (2022); Université Paris Dauphine (2022); University of Michigan (2021); University of Vienna (2021); University of Milan-Bicocca (2021); GATE-LAB Lyon (2020); ETH Zurich (2020); Innsbruck University (2019); workshop Trust and cooperation in markets and organizations, University of Stavanger (2019), Masaryk University, Brno (2019); Tilburg University (2018); ERINN (Economic Research on Identity, Norms, and Narratives) conference, Oxford (2018); 2018 ESA World Meeting – BERA plenary lecture, Berlin (2018); Technical University of Ostrava (2017); University of Gothenburg (2017); 68° North Conference, Svolvaer (2017); European Behavioral Economics Meeting, Budapest (2017); University of Goettingen (2017); German Institute for Economic Research, Berlin (2017); University of Regensburg (2016); UC Berkeley (2015); University of San Francisco (2015); Tilburg University (2015); Second Conference on Rational Inattention and Related Theories, Oxford (2014); Norwegian School of Economics, Bergen (2014); Workshop on Behavior in Childhood and Adolescence. University of Gothenburg (2012); International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C. (2008).

 

Presentations at international conferences

2023 Economic Science Association World meeting, Lyon (2023); Seventh International Meeting on Experimental and Behavioral Social Sciences (IMEBESS), Lisbon (2023); AEA 2017 Annual Meeting, Chicago (2017); Slovak Economic Association Meeting, Košice (2017); 7th Thurgau Experimental Economics Meeting, Kreuzlingen (2016); European Association of Labour Economists Annual Conference, Ljubljana (2014); 29th Annual Congress of the European Economic Association, Toulouse (2014); Symposium on Economic Experiments in Developing Countries, Bergen (2014); European Association of Labour Economists Annual Conference, Bonn (2012); Royal Economic Society Annual Conference, Cambridge, UK (2012); AEA 2012 Annual Meeting, Chicago, session organizer (2012); 6th Nordic Conference on Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Lund (2011); Prague Economic Meeting (2011); Thurgau Experimental Economics Meeting on Social Norms, Konstanz (2011); Thurgau Experimental Economics Meeting, Konstanz (2010); Bratislava Economic Meeting (2010); 5th Nordic Conference on Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Helsinki (2010); 24th Meeting of the European Economic Association, Barcelona (2009); 3rd Nordic Conference on Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Copenhagen (2008); Northeastern Universities Development Consortium Conference, Boston (2008); Second Riccardo Faini Doctoral Conference on Development Economics, Gargnano (2008).

Rok vydání

Monographs

Chapters in monographs

Articles

Contributions in the conference proceedings

2024 Czech Science Foundation President’s Award (in Social Sciences and Humanities)

2023 Bedřich Hrozný Prize for Creative Initiative awarded by the Rector of the Charles University – paper „Communicating doctors’ consensus persistently increases COVID-19 vaccinations“ (joint with Michal Bauer).

2017 Exeter Prize for Research in Experimental Economics, Decision Theory and Behavioral Economics - paper „Attention Discrimination: Theory and Field Experiments with Monitoring Information Acquisition“ (joint with Vojtěch Bartoš, Michal Bauer and Filip Matějka).

2016 Award for Excellence in Research, Experimental Development, and Innovation (Ministry of Education)

2016 Kateřina Šmídková Award for the best Czech female economist awarded by the Czech Economic Society

2015 Best Paper Award on The Economics of Discrimination awarded by UniCredit & Universities Foundation - paper „Attention Discrimination: Theory and Field Experiments with Monitoring Information Acquisition“ (joint with Vojtěch Bartoš, Michal Bauer and Filip Matějka).

2011 Neuron Prize for young scientists awarded by Karel Janeček Foundation

2006 Young Economist 2006, 1. prize, awarded by the Czech Economic Association - paper “Does Education Matter in Patience Formation? Evidence from Ugandan Villages” (joint with Michal Bauer and Pavel Streblov)

JEB154 - Bachelor´s Thesis Seminar I
JEB155 - Bachelor´s Thesis Seminar II
JEB147 - Behavioral Economics
JEM176 - Intermediate Microeconomics II
JEB108 - Microeconomics II
JEB134 - Odborná stáž

Guidelines for Advisory of Bachelor and Master theses

This text provides guidelines to BA and MA students who are interested in the applied microeconomics topics and would like to write their thesis with me as an advisor. It describes the structure of the whole process of preparation of your thesis and our cooperation. Having this process clear will give you better opportunity to get the advice when you need it and, ultimately, to write a better thesis.

 

Research topics: The text lists examples of topics you might be interested to study (in particular, but not limited to, development and behavioral economics). It also provides several specific examples of topics which were studied in bachelor/master theses by your older colleagues. These topics may give you an idea how a research question suitable for a thesis looks like and give you an inspiration for your own research topic.

Data sources: To analyze your research question, you will need to analyze (a) an existing dataset with individual-level data, or (b) survey or experimental data which you will collect on your own. The document also provides several links to the existing datasets you may find useful.

Before you contact me, the following steps need to be taken on your side (stage 1):

  • Think about and articulate a specific research question you want to study and why it is important.
  • Read the relevant literature and formulate the contribution of your thesis relative to the existing scientific knowledge.
  • If you want to use an existing dataset: Search for a dataset which will allow you to study your research question. Make sure that it contains the variables you will need for the analysis.
  • If you want to collect your own data: Think about the main features and manipulations of your questionnaire/experiment as well as about the relevant sample and how you will access the respondents.
  • Send me a short summary (approximately a half-page) of the above-mentioned points (research question, contribution, methodology).

 

Applied microeconomics

Process of writing/our co-operation

Stage 1: As described above

Stage 2: Write a more detailed literature review and spell out clearly the contribution of your thesis. Send it to me for comments.

Stage 3

  • Learn the data well by reading the questionnaires and supplementary materials.
  • Learn the techniques that you would like to use.
  • Run preliminary analysis, think about the results and possible interpretations.
  • Send me the main results presented in a concise way – a few tables with clear labels of the variables and a short (max half-page) summary of the results.
  • At this point it will be useful for us to meet and discuss the results and their interpretation.

Stage 4

  • Finalize the data analysis.
  • Write down the first draft of your thesis.
  • Send it to me at least five days before we meet so that I can read it.
  • Get comments and finalize the thesis.

If you find it useful to discuss with me a part of your thesis any other time, always send it to me at least five days before we meet.

 

Data sources

The hyperlinks below will lead you to datasets, most of which are publicly available. You might be surprised how detailed the data are and how many interesting questions one can explore by using them.

  • Demographic and Health Surveys:

http://www.measuredhs.com/

  • Humanitarian Data Exchange

https://data.hdx.rwlabs.org/

  • Poverty Action Lab (MIT):

http://www.povertyactionlab.org/evaluations/data

  • List of development micro data sets on BREAD webpage

http://ipl.econ.duke.edu/dthomas/dev_data/index.html

  • International Food and Policy Research Institute (Washington, D.C.)

http://www.ifpri.org/datasets

 

Research topics

In general, you can work on any topic in applied microeconomics. Topics related to poverty and health, education, financial behavior, gender differences and intra-household decision making are particularly welcome.

Here are a few examples of the research questions studies in a bachelor/master thesis in the past:

  • The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors on road traffic safety in the Czech Republic (Josefína Schusterová)
  • The effect of weather on purchases on online fashion e-shop in the Czech Republic (Nikola Borýsková)
  • The Geopolitics of Repressions (Martin Kosík, DOT Award)
  • How does death of a household member affect consumption? The Case of Mexico (Marek Šedivý)
  • Crowdfunding: What makes a project desirable? (Tereza Navarová)
  • Determinants of Life Satisfaction in the Czech Republic and their Development over Time (Anna Pavlovová)
  • School bullying and its effect on children’s academic performance in the Czech Republic (Tereza Kalendová)
  • The Effects of Siblings‘ Composition on Child Labor and School Attendance (Václav Korbel)
  • AIDS and polygamy in Sub-Saharan Africa (Jiří Pokorný)

 

Behavioral and experimental economics

Traditional economic theory uses many assumptions about individual preferences and behavior (for example, unbounded rationality and selfishness). Behavioral economics integrates insights from psychology which have documented that human behavior often departs from these assumptions in important ways. Examples include sharing with strangers, self-control difficulties or overconfidence.

If you want to learn more about behavioral economics, great starting points are:

  • Wilkinson (2008): Introduction to behavioral economics
  • The following books which popularize behavioral economics are available in bookstores both in English and Czech:
    • Daniel Kahneman: Thinking, Fast and Slow
    • Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein: Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

You are also welcome to attend the course JEB147 Behavioral Economics which takes place in winter semester at IES.

For your thesis, you will need to collect your own dataset. You can either implement a survey experiment or an economic experiment. Survey experiments involve distributing a questionnaire among a sample of respondents and randomly varying some of its elements across respondents. In contrast, economic experiments involve incentivized tasks, which make the respondents think seriously about their choices but at the same time require some cost. For your thesis, you could do a replication/extension of an interesting (survey) experiment conducted in another country and test if the results are stable in another environment (Czech Republic). Even more interestingly, you could build on existing experiments and extend them in some important way. There is a laboratory for experimental economics at the University of Economics (VŠE) -- http://www.vse-lee.cz/cze/o-lee/o-nas.  

 

Process of writing/our co-operation

Stage 1: as described at the beginning of this text

Stage 2: Write a more detailed literature review and spell out clearly the contribution of your thesis. Send it to me for comments.

Stage 3

  • Write the questionnaire/prepare the experimental script. Think carefully about random manipulations you plan to implement.
  • Make detailed plans how to access the respondents/participants.
  • Send me the questionnaire/experimental script at least five days before meet so that we can have an efficient discussion about it.

Stage 4

  • Distribute the questionnaires/run the experiments.
  • Analyze the data, think about the results and possible interpretations.
  • Send me the main results presented in a concise way – a few tables with clearly labeled variables and a short (max half-page) summary of the results.
  • At this point it will be useful for us to meet and discuss the results and their interpretation.

Stage 5

  • Finalize the data analysis.
  • Write down the first draft of your thesis.
  • Send it to me at least five days before we meet so that I can read it.
  • Get comments and finalize the thesis.

If you find it useful to discuss with me a part of your thesis any other time, always send it to me at least five days before we meet.

 

Research topics

In general, you can work on any topic in behavioral economics. Topics related to time discounting (patience), social preferences, limited self-control and cooperation are particularly welcome.

Here are a few examples of the research questions studies in a bachelor/master thesis in the past:

  • Discrimination of Ukrainian Citizens in the Czech Labor Market: A Field Experiment (Viktoria Pasichnyk, nominated for the DOT Award)
  • Fighting Fake News with Accuracy: Dual Processing Perspective (Mikayel Harutyunyan, DOT Award and 2022 Josef Hlávka Award)
  • Testing the Use of Choice Defaults to Stimulate Behavior of Dancers (Eva Skácelíková, DOT Award)
  • The Truth Behind the Lies: The Experiment (Mikayel Harutyunyan, DOT Award)
  • Differences in Competitiveness at a Young Age: An Experiment (Martin Kolda)
  • Gender Differences in Competitiveness and Confidence: Comparison of Children from India and the Czech Republic (Karel Pfeffer)

 

2023-2028        The Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, ERC-CZ grant – Discrimination, the Desire to Harm and the Role of Hardship (co-investigator)

2020-2022        The Czech Science Foundation – Determinants of Pro-Social and Anti-Social Behavior: Field Experimental Evidence (principal investigator)

2017-2019        The Czech Science Foundation – Economic and Social Determinants of Hostility (principal investigator)

2013-2016        The Czech Science Foundation - Using Economic Experiments to Understand Discrimination and Inter-group Cooperation (co-investigator)

2010-2012        The Czech Science Foundation, Postdoctoral grant – Endogenous Social Preferences and Economic Behavior (principal investigator)

2010                 Global Development Network – Formation of Other-Regarding Preferences (principal investigator)

2009                 Ministry of Education – Evaluation of the Education Support Programme (principal investigator)

2007-2008        Global Development Network - The Role of Education in Patience Formation (co-investigator)

Behavioral Economics, Experimental Economics, Development Economics, Social Preferences, Time Preferences and Self-control, Individual and Group Decision-making, Discrimination