The project is supported by the Austrian Science Fund FWF with another four million euros. Besides the SFB speaker, Michael Kirchler, and Jürgen Huber from the Faculty of Business Administration, the team of principal investigators includes Loukas Balafoutas, Esther Blanco, Rudolf Kerschbamer and Markus Walzl from the Faculty of Economics and Statistics.

In addition to the already established projects of the first funding period, such as intercultural field studies on credence goods or the improvement of consumer decisions through educational programs and improved decision architecture, new projects will have a stronger focus on label credence goods. These include questions of sustainable production, sustainable consumption and socially responsible investment in the financial market. So-called "labels" or certificates exist for these areas, which should, for example, signal organic or socially sustainable investments. The problem is, that after consumption or investment it is not clear to the consumer whether the product is actually organic, socially sustainable or green. In a series of theoretical models, laboratory and field experiments, the six project part leaders and their 30 employees are investigating the effectiveness of these labels and certificates and analyze possibilities for improvement in existing markets. Following this logic, the SFB also investigates the scientific knowledge generation process as a credence good in a series of laboratory and field experiments. Again, information deficits may exist on the part of decision makers, funding agencies and the general public regarding the robustness and correctness of scientific results.

Link to official press release (GERMAN): https://www.uibk.ac.at/public-relations/presse/archiv/2020/1348/