Agents and Decisions: Exposure, learning and conditional choices in urban environments

Friday, 12 June 2026, 10.30am to 11.45am

In this talk, Luis Bettencourt will discuss several recent empirical results on decisions and sorting mechanisms in complex urban environments. Examples range from residential choice and the varying effects of income and identity, mental health and social interactions, and implicit racial biases. In all cases, outcomes depend on socioeconomic exposure to complex environments in systematic ways, informing behavioral theory and agent-based models.

Time permitting, he will also discuss proposals to generalize decision theory beyond standard paradigms to situations that require strategic reasoning under uncertainty and constraints on agency, towards better matching evidence in psychological experiments and aggregate socioeconomic outcomes.

Speaker(s): Prof Luís Bettencourt (University of Chicago)

Series: INET Complexity Economics Seminars

Venue: Manor Road Building - Seminar Room C - Seminar Room C Manor Road Building Manor Road Oxford Oxfordshire OX1 3UQ United Kingdom

Department: Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment (Unit)

Organiser: Dorothy Nicholas

Host: INET Complexity Economics

Register here: https://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/events/agents-and-decisions