Economics, Business, and Accounting

Abel Winn

Associate Professor of Economics
“People follow rules without being able to articulate them, but they can be discovered. ... Rules emerge as a spontaneous order–they are found–not deliberately designed by one calculating mind. Initially constructivist institutions undergo evolutionary change adapting beyond the circumstances that gave them birth. What emerges is a form of ‘social mind’ that solves complex organization problems without conscious cognition.”
— Vernon Smith, Constructivist and Ecological Rationality in Economics, 2002

Faculty Information

Additional Faculty Information for Abel Winn

Education

B.A., Hillsdale College, 2001
M.A., George Mason University, 2004
Ph.D., George Mason University, 2005

Publications

“Laboratory Experiments on Land Assembly without Eminent Domain,” with Mark DeSantis and Matthew McCarter. Research in Experimental Economics: Experimental Law and Economics, Volume 21: 35-125 (February 2022).

“The Rational Irrationality of Auction Fever: Evidence from Amazon.com Gift Cards, Consumer Products on EBay and the Behavioral Laboratory,” with Matthew McCarter. Journal of Marketing Behavior 4(1): 57-101 (March 2019).

“Land Assembly with Taxes, Not Takings,” with Mark DeSantis and Matthew McCarter. Applied Economics Letters, 26 (7): 605-607 (April 2019).

“Like a Jar of Flies? A Study of Self-Control in an Organizational Social Dilemma with Large Stakes,” with Jonathan Clark, Darcy Kamal and Matthew McCarter. PLOS ONE (December 2018).

“Who’s Holding Out? An Experimental Study of the Burdens and Benefits of Eminent Domain,” with Matthew McCarter. Journal of Urban Economics, 105: 176-185 (May 2018).

“Land Assembly Without Eminent Domain: Laboratory Experiments of Two Tax Mechanisms,” with Mark DeSantis and Matthew McCarter. Mercatus on Policy (March 2018).

“Seller Beware: Supply and Demand Reduction and Price Manipulation in Multiple-Unit Uniform Price Auctions,” with Michael Parente and David Porter. Southern Economic Journal, 82(3): 760-780 (January 2016).

“Re-Trading, Production and Asset Market Performance,” with Steven Gjerstad, David Porter and Vernon Smith, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(47):14557-14562 (November 2015).

“Does Money Illusion Matter?: Comment,” with Luba Petersen, American Economic Review, 104(3): 1047 – 1062 (March 2014).

“Bargaining Behavior and the Tragedy of the Anticommons,” with Michael Parente. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 84: 475-490 (November 2012).

“The Design, Testing and Implementation of Virginia’s NOx Allowance Auction,” with David Porter, Stephen Rassenti, William Shobe and Vernon Smith. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, 69:2 190-200 (February 2009).

“Demand-Side Withdrawal in Wholesale Electricity Markets: An Experimental Study,” with Celine Julien and Stephen Rassenti, Economie et Prevision, 182: 61-76 (2008).

“A Compensation Election for Binary Social Choice,” with Ryan Oprea and Vernon L. Smith, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104:3 1093-1096 (January 2007).

Biography

Abel Winn’s research interests include economic systems design and experimental economics. Prior to joining the faculty at Hillsdale College, he was associate professor of economics at the Argyros School of Business & Economics at Chapman University, where he also served as associate dean. He spent four years as director of experimental economics at the Market-Based Management Institute, in affiliation with Koch Industries and Wichita State University, where he conducted research on expectation formation, incentive compensation, and hold-out problems. Dr. Winn helped to develop the auction system for the Commonwealth of Virginia’s nitrous oxide emission credits and has consulted with major telecommunications companies, helping them to develop bidding strategies in FCC auctions for spectrum.