Thomas Lanzi’s HDR defense

Event details :

Mr Thomas LANZI will present his work for the Diplôme d’Habilitation à Diriger des Recherches (HDR) on the following theme:

‘Expertise and decision-making: from strategic interaction to the dynamics of opinion’.

This HDR was supervised by Mr Samuel FEREY – Professor, University of Lorraine.

The jury is composed of :

Mr Axel GAUTIER, Professor, University of Liège (Reporter)

Ms Jeanne HAGENBACH, Director of Research, CNRS, Economics Department, Sciences Po Paris (Examiner)

Ms Lucie MÉNAGER, Professor, University Panthéon-Assas, Paris II (Rapporteur)

Mr Régis RENAULT, Professor, CY Cergy Paris Université (Rapporteur)

Ms Gisèle UMBHAUER, Senior Lecturer HDR, University of Strasbourg (Examiner)

Abstract: In many economic contexts, decision-makers (whether individual or collective) do not have access to all the necessary information to make optimal decisions suited to the decision-making environment. In such cases, relying on expertise can be an effective tool for decision support. However, the informational advantage held by experts may lead them to manipulate the information to serve their private interests.
This habilitation thesis presents a synthesis of previous research and a research project focusing on the analysis of the relationships between decision-makers, experts, and citizens. The emphasis is placed on studying the strategic communication behaviors, the incentives arising from the reputational effects to which experts are subject, and the opinion dynamics generated by the interactions between the different actors. The tools employed are drawn from game theory and applied mathematics to study dynamic processes. The main areas of application include political economy, industrial economics, and law economics