Vera te Velde

Dr. Vera te Velde is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Economics within the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Queensland, where she has been appointed since 2014. She specializes in behavioural economics, focusing on social preferences, social norms, signalling, and experimental economics. te Velde earned her Doctor of Philosophy in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley in 2014. Her research examines how social influences shape individual economic decisions, including conformity to descriptive norms, heterogeneous social pressures, and the role of beliefs in altruistic behaviour. She coordinates the course Behavioural Economics (ECON2060) and is recognized as a media expert on these topics, contributing insights on social norms during the COVID-19 pandemic and gender barriers in political candidacy.

te Velde's scholarly output includes publications in premier journals such as the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Annual Review of Economics, Experimental Economics, and Theory and Decision. Key papers are 'What drives voter turnout? Experimental insights on collectivism and probability weighting' (2025, with Faravelli, Gordon, and Huisman), 'Conformity to descriptive norms' (2022, with Louis), 'Heterogeneous norms: social image and social pressure when people disagree' (2022), 'Beliefs-based altruism as an alternative explanation for social signaling behaviors' (2018), 'Rethinking reciprocity' (2014, with Malmendier and Weber), and 'You’ve earned it: estimating the impact of human capital on social preferences' (2014, with Jakiela and Miguel). Earlier contributions cover dynamic pricing strategies (2008 and 2007, with McAfee). Her work has accumulated over 735 citations on Google Scholar. Funding achievements encompass an Australian Research Council Discovery Project grant for 'Voter behaviour and polarisation: The role of social preferences' (2022–2026), Advance Queensland Women's Research Assistance Program (2021), and University of Queensland Early Career Researcher grant for 'Heterogeneous norms' (2018–2019). She is available for student supervision and affiliated with the Centre for Behavioural and Economic Science.

Professional Email: v.tevelde@uq.edu.au