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Research

My first job after completing my PhD was in an inter-disciplinary research center, which stimulated my intellectual curiousity about different perspectives on human behavior. As a result, my research interests range from empirical Industrial Organization to how gossip helps build reputation systems; from behavioral change to leadership and organizational behavior. I regularly collaborate with psychologists, economic theorists, and social scientists. In this page, you'll find my research outputs (published and work-in-progress) organized around six themes.

Trust, Gossip, and Reputation

This line of work relates to decentralised reputation systems, one example being gossip, and how they promote and sustain cooperation in large or geographically disperse groups. Reputation systems are essential in environments where repeated interactions are rare. The effectiveness of decentralised reputation systems is often questioned on the basis that inaccuracy in information transmission, either purposeful or accidental, as this may hamper their ability to sustain cooperation. My work has focused on establishing whether such inaccuracies can indeed undermine trust.

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In press Gossip Reputation

Gossip and Reputation

Peters, K., and Fonseca, M.A. | Advances in Experimental Social Psychology

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2021 Gossip Deception

Detecting Deception: When Are Gossipers' Lies Detected and Punished?

Fonseca, M. A., Peters, K. | Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B

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2020 Media coverage

Truth, Lies and Gossip

Peters, K., and Fonseca, M. A. | Psychological Science

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2018 Media coverage

Will Any Gossip Do? Gossip Does Not Need To Be Perfectly Accurate To Promote Trust

Fonseca, M. A., and Peters, K. | Games and Economic Behavior

Cooperation, Identity, and Social Enforcement

In this line of work, I examine of individual behavior is shaped by social processes. Most of my work in this area has focused on the role of social identity fragmentation across identities can shape intra- and inter-group cooperation. I also look at the effectiveness of incentives and social mechanisms like norms and mandates in effecting behavior change.

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2025 Cooperation Punishment

Promoting Cooperation in an Unequal World: Experimental Evidence on the Role of Transparency and Punishment

Chen, J., D'Attoma, J., Fonseca, M.A., and Malezieux, A. | Journal of Business Ethics

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2024 Social Norms Laws and Mandates

The presence of laws and mandates is associated with increased social norm enforcement

Mulder, L.B., Kurz, T., Prosser, A.M.B., and Fonseca, M.A. | Journal of Economic Psychology

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2024 Overconfidence Social Identity

Do In-Group Biases Lead to Overconfidence in Performance? Experimental Evidence

Flores, L.Q., and Fonseca, M.A. | Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics

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2021 Behavior Change Social Norms Incentives

When a Nudge Is (Not) Enough: Experiments on Social Information and Incentives

Chen, J., Fonseca, M. A., and Grimshaw, S. B. | European Economic Review

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2019 Social Identity

Religious Fragmentation, Social Identity and Other-Regarding Preferences

Chakravarty, S., Fonseca, M. A., Ghosh, S., Kumar, P., and Marjit, S. | Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics

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2016 Social Identity Club Goods

Discrimination via Exclusion: An Experiment on Group Identity and Club Goods

Chakravarty, S., Fonseca, M. A. | Journal of Public Economic Theory

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2016 Social Identity Cooperation Social Fragmentation

Religious Fragmentation, Social Identity and Cooperation: Evidence from an Artefactual Field Experiment in India

Chakravarty, S., Fonseca, M. A., Ghosh, S., and Marjit, S. | European Economic Review

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2016 Social Identity Cooperation Social Fragmentation

Religious Fragmentation, Social Identity and Conflict: Evidence from an Artefactual Field Experiment in India

Chakravarty, S., Fonseca, M. A., Ghosh, S., and Marjit, S. | PLOS: One

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2014 Public goods

The Effect of Social Fragmentation on Public Good Provision: An Experimental Study

Chakravarty, S. and Fonseca, M. A. | Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics

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2014 Public goods

A fine is a more effective financial deterrent when framed retributively and extracted publicly

Kurz, T., Thomas, W. E., and Fonseca, M. A. | Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics

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Markets, Cartels, and Regulation

In this line of work I examine determinants of anti-competitive practices in markets. I have looked at the potential of merger policy to induce tacit collusion, and then I have done extensive work examining the determinants of cartel formation. My latest work in this area examines the interface between legal regimes on competition and how they affect executive compensation.

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2022 Collusion Bertrand markets

How do Antitrust Regimes Impact on Cartel Formation and Managers' Labor Market? An Experiment.

Fonseca, M.A., Gonçalves, R., Pinho, J., and Tabacco, G. | Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

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2020 Auctions Signalling

Auctions with External Incentives: Experimental Evidence

Fonseca, M. A., Giovannoni, F., and Makris, M. | International Journal of Game Theory

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2019 Endogenous Timing Bertrand markets

Endogenous Price Leadership with Asymmetric Costs: Experimental Evidence

Fonseca, M. A. | Studies in Microeconomics

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2018 Collusion Cournot markets

Why Factors Facilitating Collusion May Not Predict Cartel Occurrence

Fonseca, M. A., Li, Y., and Normann, H. T. | Southern Economic Journal

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2016 Penny Auctions Learning

Learning From Simultaneous Play: Evidence From Penny Auctions

Gonçalves, R., and Fonseca, M. A. | Journal of Economics and Management Strategy

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2014 Collusion Bertrand markets

Endogenous Cartel Formation: Experimental Evidence

Fonseca, M. A., and Normann, H. T. | Economics Letters

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2013 Collusion Bertrand-Edgeworth markets

Excess Capacity and Competition in Bertrand-Edgeworth Markets: Experimental Evidence

Fonseca, M. A., and Normann, H. T. | Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics

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2012 Tacit vs. explicit collusion Bertrand Markets

Explicit vs. Tacit Collusion - The Impact of Communication in Oligopoly Experiments

Fonseca, M. A., and Normann, H. T. | European Economic Review

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2009 Tullock Contests Rent-seeking

An Experimental Investigation of Asymmetric Contests

Fonseca, M. A. | International Journal of Industrial Organization

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2008 Collusion Mergers Bertrand-Edgeworth markets

Mergers, Asymmetry and Collusion: Experimental Evidence

Fonseca, M. A., and Normann, H. T. | Economic Journal

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2006 Endogenous timing Cournot markets

Endogenous Timing with Observable Delay: Experimental Evidence

Fonseca, M. A., Müller, W., and Normann, H. T. | International Journal of Game Theory

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2005 Endogenous timing Cournot markets

Playing Cournot Although They Shouldn't: Endogenous Timing in Experimental Duopolies with Asymmetric Cost

Fonseca, M. A., Huck, S., and Normann, H. T. | Economic Theory

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Institutions, Compliance, and Policy Design

In this line of work my focus is on to taxation, contract enforcement, regulation, and behavioral interventions, asking how institutions change incentives and how people respond to those changes in practice. Much of my work in this space was funded by the ESRC/HMRC Tax Administration Research Centre.

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2022 Tax compliance Labor Supply Income Windfalls

The Effects of Income Windfalls on Labour Supply and Tax Compliance: Experimental Evidence

Fonseca, M.A. and Rahimi, L. | Review of Behavioral Economics

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2021 Regulation

Should Regulators Always be Transparent? A Bank Run Experiment

Chakravarty, S., Choo, L., Fonseca, M.A., Kaplan, T.R. | European Economic Review

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2020 Legal Procedure Contract Enforcement

Preordered Service in Contract Enforcement

Auerbach, J., and Fonseca, M.A. | Games and Economic Behavior

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2017 Behavioral nudges

Does Using Behavioural Nudges in Pre-Populated Tax Forms Affect Compliance?

Fonseca, M. A., Grimshaw, S. | Journal of Public Policy & Marketing

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2016 Field and lab evidence

Do Students Behave Like Real Taxpayers? Experimental Evidence on Taxpayer Compliance From the Lab and From the Field

Choo, L., Fonseca, M. A. and Myles, G. | Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

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2014 Bank Runs Contagion

An Experiment on the Causes of Bank Run Contagions

Chakravarty, S., Fonseca, M. A., and Kaplan, T. R. | European Economic Review

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2013 Forecasting

The Wisdom of Crowds: Predicting a Weather and Climate-Related Event

Hueffer, K., Fonseca, M. A., Leiserowitz, A., and Taylor, K. M. | Judgment and Decision Making

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2012 Queueing Spot Markets

An Advantage of Resource Queues over Spot Markets: Decision Coordination in Experiments with Resource Uncertainty

Fonseca, M. A., Pfaff, A., and Osgood, D. | American Journal of Agricultural Economics

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Leadership, Organizational Behavior, and Inequality

This theme gathers research on leadership, organizational identification, gender beliefs, pay inequality, and performance, showing how status and group dynamics shape outcomes inside institutions.

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2025 Gender beliefs

The Role of Experience in Shifting Gender Beliefs on Performance: Experimental Evidence

Fonseca, M.A., McCrea, A. | Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization

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2024 Pay gap

Do Followers Mind the Pay Gap? An Experimental Test of the Impact of the Vertical Pay Gap on Leader Effectiveness

Peters, K., Fonseca, M.A., Hauser, O.P., and Steffens, N. | Leadership Quarterly

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2023 Productivity Organizations

How Much will Climate Change Reduce Productivity in a High-Technology Supply Chain?

Chen, J., Fonseca, M.A., Heyes, A., Yang, J. and Zhang, X. | Environmental and Resource Economics

2019 CEO Pay Leadership

Fat Cats and Thin Followers: Excessive CEO Pay May Reduce Ability to Lead

Peters, K. O., Fonseca, M. A., Haslam, S. A., Steffens, N. K., and Quiggin, J. | The Social Psychology of Inequality

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2018 Leadership Feedback

How Feedback About Leadership Potential Impacts Ambition, Organizational Commitment, and Performance

Steffens, N. K., Fonseca, M. A., Ryan, M. K., Rink, F. A., Stoker, J. I., Nederveen Pieterse, A. | The Leadership Quarterly

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2012 Organisational Identification

Working with Subgroup Identities to Build Organizational Identification and Support for Organizational Strategy: A Test of the ASPIRe Model

Peters, K. O., Haslam, S. A., Ryan, M. K., and Fonseca, M. A. | Group and Organisation Management

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Methodology and Open Science

I was involved in the SCORE project which sought to investigate the replicability of research in social sciences, both as an author and as an editor.

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2026 Replicability

Investigating the Replicability of the Social and Behavioral Sciences

Tyner, A. H., (...), Fonseca, M.A., (...), Nosek, B. A., and Errington, T. M. | Nature

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