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Department of Economics

Taha Movahedi

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Dr Taha Movahedi

Director of UG Student Opportunities

EPP Coordinator

Research Affiliation

Teaching

Contact details

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Email: Taha dot Movahedi at warwick dot ac dot uk
Room:S 0.60S0.60


Advice and feedback hours: Term 2: Mondays 12-13 am; Tuesdays 11-12 am. Appointment via email
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About me

I joined the Economics Department as an Economics Assistant Professor in January 2023. My main area of research is behavioural and experimental economics and I work on social identity, social preferences and cooperation in groups. I have been teaching economics and finance in higher education institutions since 2013 and have run schemes like study help programs to support students. I was part of the team that helped to establish the experimental laboratory at the University of Leicester and I organized the second international research conference in economics at Leicester University in 2016.

Before joining the University of Warwick, I worked as a Senior teaching fellow at the University of Portsmouth Business School (2018-2022). Before the University of Portsmouth, I worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Leicester for 4 years during my PhD. I was awarded a PhD in July 2018 in behavioural and experimental economics from the University of Leicester and my PhD thesis is on group identity and social preferences. I have a master's degree in MSc Economics (with Distinction Award) from the University of Leicester and a BSc in Economics from Allameh Tabataba’i University (Iran).

Research Interests

  • Behavioural Economics
  • Experimental Economics
  • Applied Microeconomics
  • Behavioural Game Theory and Decision Making
  • Political Economics

Education

  • PhD Economics | University of Leicester
  • MSc Economics | University of Leicester
  • BSc Economics | Allameh Tabataba’i University (Iran)

Affiliations

  • Economic Science Association Member
  • Member of the Royal Economic Society

Grants and Awards

  • Research Project Fund, UoP, £5000, "Identity-based Discrimination and Moral Wiggle Room".
  • Research Project Fund, UoP, £5000, "Perception-based analysis of student satisfaction in HE ".

  • Boost Fund for Curriculum Development, UoP, for a project on the design of a program for postgraduate placement at the University of Portsmouth, £3000.

  • PhD research fund, University of Leicester Experimental Economic Laboratory, £2500.

  • Conferences

    • PEPE+EBERG research away day, Friday, 26/05/2023, University of Warwick, Uk

    • ESA European Meeting (2022), University of Bologna, Italy.
    • Young Economist Conference (2022), Masaryk University, Czech Republic.
    • Organiser for the 2nd International Conference, University of Leicester, 5-6 December 2015

    • RES Conference, Royal Economic Society, University of Bristol, March 30th - April 1st, 2017.

Group Identity and Social Preferences: the Role of (endogenous) Information

Movahedi, T. & Rojo Arjona, David.& Ramalingam, Abhijit, Feb 2020

Abstract: The manipulation of making group identity salient has been reported to systematically affect behaviour towards others as it changes individuals' social preferences to favour in-group members inside and outside the laboratory. However, many of our interactions outside a laboratory are with strangers whose (group) identity is unknown to us. So, a natural question emerges regarding the role of group identity when individuals can choose to learn the identity of others even at a zero price. Following the design of previous experiments, we replicate previous pro-social results in psychology and economics when subjects are assigned to a group identity and are revealed the identity of others they interact with. However, in a treatment where individuals have a free choice to learn about identity or not, we find that 40% of participants decide to consistently ignore the identity of others. More importantly, these subjects also show higher charity and less envy compared to those who are forced to learn their identity (but not more than those who freely choose to know other participants’ identities). Thus, we suggest that, when given the choice not to care about identity, individuals do not necessarily exhibit less pro-social behaviour.

Identity-based Discrimination and Moral Wiggle Room

Movahedi, T and Murad, Z., October 2021

Abstract: In this paper, we ask if the possibility of moral wiggle room affects identity-based discrimination. We hypothesize that selfish behaviour will increase when moral wiggle room is possible and there will be more discriminatory exploitation of moral wiggle rooms against outgroups than in groups. We find that in settings where the use of moral wiggle room is not possible, very few people choose the selfish option and there is no discrimination between an ingroup and an outgroup. However, in settings where moral wiggle room is possible, participants choose the selfish option more frequently and clearly show discriminatory behaviour against an outgroup member. We conclude that moral wiggle room is used as an excuse to discriminate in situations where blatant discrimination cannot be morally justified.

Perception-based Analysis of student satisfaction in HE

Movahedi, T and Choudhury, H. 2022