Main
James R. Bland
Appointments
The University of Toledo
Associate Professor
Toledo, Ohio, USA
2023 – ongoing
Department of Economics, College of Arts and Letters
The University of Toledo
Assistant Professor
Toledo, Ohio, USA
2016 – 2023
Department of Economics, College of Arts and Letters
Education
Purdue University
Ph.D. in Economics
West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
2012 - 2016
Dissertation title: Three essays in economics
Adviser: Tim Cason
Purdue University
M.S. in Economics
West Lafayette, Indiana, USA
2012 - 2016
The University of Melbourne
Master of Economics (Honours – H1)
Parkville, Victoria, Australia
2011
Adviser: Nikos Nikiforakis
The University of Melbourne
Bachelor of Commerce, degree with honours
Parkville, Victoria, Australia
2005 - 2010
Major: Economics
Adviser: Nikos Nikiforakis
The University of Melbourne
Bachelor of Engineering (Honours – H1)
Parkville, Victoria, Australia
2005 - 2009
Major: Chemical Engineering
Research
Research interests
Econometrics, Behavioral Economics, Experimental Economics, Bayesian Econometrics, Structural Econometrics, Behavioral Game Theory
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Books
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Bland, James R., “Structural Bayesian Techniques for Experimental and Behavioral Economics. With applications in R and Stan.” (2025, in progress): https://jamesblandecon.github.io/StructuralBayesianTechniques/section.html
Published journal articles
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Bland, James R., “Combining decision-level data from multiple experiments: what is the pooled estimator doing?.” Journal of the Economic Science Association (2026): 1–13 https://doi.org/10.1017/esa.2026.10031
James R. Bland, and Theodore L. Turocy, “Quantal response equilibrium as a structural model for estimation: The missing manual.” Games and Economic Behavior 157 (2026): 592-618 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899825625000211
James R. Bland, “Bayesian inference for Quantal Response Equilibrium in normal-form games.” Games and Economic Behavior 157 (2026): 619-636 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0899825623000684
Bland, James R, “Some guidance for the choice of priors for Bayesian structural models in economic experiments.” Journal of the Economic Science Association 11 no.1 (2025): 117–126 https://doi.org/10.1017/esa.2025.6
Cook, Amanda C, Meisner, Andrew, and Bland, James R, “Information cascades in the classroom: the relationship between in-class feedback and course performance.” Journal of Economics and Politics 26 no.1 (2021): https://collected.jcu.edu/jep/vol26/iss1/3/
Bland, James R, and Rosokha, Yaroslav, “Learning under uncertainty with multiple priors: experimental investigation.” Journal of Risk and Uncertainty (2021): 1–20 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11166-021-09351-y
Bland, James R, “Heterogeneous trembles and model selection in the strategy frequency estimation method.” Journal of the Economic Science Association (2020): 113–124 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40881-020-00097-y
Bland, James R, “Measuring and comparing two kinds of rationalizable opportunity cost in mixture models.” Games 11 no.1 (2020): 1 https://doi.org/10.3390/g11010001
Bland, James R, “How Many Games Are We Playing? An Experimental Analysis of Choice Bracketing in Games.” Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (2019): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socec.2019.03.011
Bland, James R., and Cook, Amanda C., “Random effects probit and logit: understanding predictions and marginal effects.” Applied Economics Letters 26 no.2 (2019): 116-123 https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2018.1441498
Bland, James, and Nikiforakis, Nikos, “Coordination with third-party externalities.” European Economic Review 80 (2015): 1–15 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2015.07.019
Bland, James, and da Silva, Gabriel, “A detailed chemical kinetic model for pyrolysis of the lignin model compound chroman.” AIMS Environ. Sci 1 (2013): 12–25 https://doi.org/10.3934/environsci.2013.1.12
Kingsbury, A B, Monch, A, and Bland, J, “Dimensional cost exponents for novel processing equipment.” Proceedings Project Evaluation (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne) (2012): 189–194
Working papers
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Bland, James R, Harrison, Glenn W, and Monroe, Brian, “The Hunt for Loss Aversion: A Bayesian Detective Story.” CEAR WP 2026-01 (2026):
Bland, James R, “Quantal Response Equilibrium Strategy Frequency Estimation: A tractable statistical model for indefinitely-repeated games that doesn’t work too well.” (2025):
Bland, James R, “Adding Parameter Heterogeneity to Structural Models: Some Guidance for the Practitioner.” Available at SSRN 5703347 (2025):
Bland, James R, “Rank-dependent utility preferences need not be convex preferences.”
Bland, James R, “The normative value of a revised choice: a structural approach.” Available at SSRN 5604292 (2025):
Bland, James R, “Strategy frequency estimation with a flexible wildcard strategy.” Available at SSRN 5162839 (2025):
Bland, James R, “Meta-study in the shadow of the future: the effect of continuation probability on strategies.” (2024): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id = 5042608
Bland, James R, and Rosokha, Yaroslav, “Rounding the (Non)Bayesian Curve: Unraveling the Effects of Rounding Errors in Belief Updating.” (2024): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id = 4996223
Bland, James R, “Approximate computation and estimation of quantal response equilibrium through simulation.” (2024): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id = 4774850
Bland, James R, “Computing quantal response equilibrium in some Bayesian games using marginal strategy profiles.” (2023): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id = 4551341
Bland, James R, “Optimizing Experiment Design for Estimating Parametric Models in Economic Experiments.” (2023): https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id = 4566855
Turocy, Theodore L, Cason, Timothy N, and Bland, James R, “Bidding in first-price and second-price interdependent-values auctions: A laboratory experiment.”
Bland, James R., Bochet, Olivier, Nikiforakis, Nikos, and Zhang, Huanren, “Cooperation under the shadow of inequality.” (2023): https://nyuad.nyu.edu/content/dam/nyuad/academics/divisions/social-science/working-papers/2023/WP%200093.pdf
Bland, James R., Bochet, Olivier, Nikiforakis, Nikos, and Zhang, Huanren, “Inequality and Gradualism in Infinitely Repeated Games.”
Bland, James, and Loertscher, Simon, “Monotonicity, Non-Participation, and Directed Search Equilibria.” University of Melbourne Economics Department Working Paper 1147 (2012): https://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/784294/1147.pdf
Work in progress
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Bland, James R, Harrison, Glenn W, and Monroe, Brian, “Loss Aversion and Reference-Dependent Risk Preferences.”
Cook, Amanda C., and Bland, James R., “Hospital-Insurer Bargaining Power and Negotiated Rates.”
Conferences, Workshops, Seminars, and Guest Lectures
Purdue University
“Meta-study in the shadow of the future: the effect of continuation probability on strategies.”
West Lafayette, IN, USA
2025
The University of Pittsburgh
“Rounding the (Non)Bayesian Curve: Unraveling the Effects of Rounding Errors in Belief Updating” (with Yaroslav Rosokha)
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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The University of Pittsburgh
Mini-course: “Structural Bayesian Techniques for Experimental and Behavioral Economics. With applications in R and Stan.”
Pittsburgh, PA, USA
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Workshops for Ukraine
Mini-course: “Structural Bayesian Techniques for Experimental and Behavioral Economics. With applications in R and Stan.”
Online
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2024 North American Economic Science Association Conference
“Rounding the (Non)Bayesian Curve: Unraveling the Effects of Rounding Errors in Belief Updating” (with Yaroslav Rosokha)
Tuscon, AZ, USA
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The Ohio State University
“Rounding the (Non)Bayesian Curve: Unraveling the Effects of Rounding Errors in Belief Updating” (with Yaroslav Rosokha)
Columbus, OH, USA
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The Ohio State University
Mini course: “Structural Bayesian Techniques for Experimental and Behavioral Economics”
Columbus, OH, USA
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2024 North American Economic Science Association Conference
“Rounding the (Non)Bayesian Curve: Unraveling the Effects of Rounding Errors in Belief Updating” (with Yaroslav Rosokha)
Columbus, OH
2024
Barcelona School of Economics Summer Forum
“Approximate Computation and Estimation of Quantal Response Equilibrium through Simulation”
Barcelona, Spain
Learning, Computational and Bayesian Methods in Experimental Economics
Mini-course: “Structural Bayesian Techniques for Experimental and Behavioral Economics”
Purdue University
Celebration Conference for the Grand Re‐Opening of the Vernon Smith Experimental Economics Laboratory
“Approximate Computation and Estimation of Quantal Response Equilibrium through Simulation”
Purdue University
2023 North American Economic Science Association Conference
“Optimizing experiment design for estimating parametric models in economic experiments”
Charlotte, NC
2023
25+ years of Quantal Response Equilibrium Conference
“Properties of Methods for estimating QRE” (with Theodore Turocy)
Caltech
2022
(Attended, presented by Theodore Turocy)
ESA 2020 Global Around-the-Clock Virtual Conference.
“Bayesian Inference for Response Equilibrium in Normal-Form Games”
Online
2020
ESA 2020 Global Around-the-Clock Virtual Conference.
“Some Properties of the Empirical Payoff Quantal Response Equilibrium Estimator”
Online
2020
Behavioral and Experimental Economists of the Mid Atlantic Conference
“Group and Treatment Heterogeneity in Quantal Response Equilibrium: A Bayesian Approach”
Villanova University
2019
Department of Economics Seminar Series
“Measuring and Comparing Two Kinds of Rationalizable Opportunity Cost in Mixture Models”
Wayne State University
2019
Economic Science Association 2018 North American Meeting
“Extending the strategy frequency estimation method”
Antigua Guatemala
2018
Department of Economics Seminar Series.
“The cost of being behavioral in risky choice experiments”
Bowling Green State University
2018
Department of Economics Seminar Series.
“The cost of being behavioral in risky choice experiments”
The University of Toledo
2018
87th Annual Meetings of the Southern Economics Association
“The cost of being behavioral in risky choice experiments”
Tampa, FL
2017
Economic Science Association 2017 North American Meeting.
“The cost of being behavioral in risky choice experiments”
Richmond, VA
2017
Economic Science Association 2017 North American Meeting.
“Mixture models of behavior and nuisance parameters: a semi-parametric Bayesian approach”
Richmond, VA
2017
Guest lecture
“An introduction to hypothesis tests without an introduction to asymptotics”
Bowling Green State University
2017
Department of Economics, ECON 4/5020 Econometrics I
Experimental Lunch Seminar Series
“The cost of being behavioral in risky choice experiments”
Purdue University
2017
Annual Meeting of the Midwest Economic Association
“Optimizing the Incentives in Online Homework”
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2017
Department of Economics Seminar Series
“How many games are we playing? An experimental analysis of choice bracketing in games”
University of Queensland
2016
Department of Economics Seminar Series
“How many games are we playing? An experimental analysis of choice bracketing in games”
NYU Abu Dhabi
2015
Spring School in Behavioral Economics, Rady School of Management, UC SanDiego (poster session)
“How many games are we playing? An experimental analysis of choice bracketing in games”
UC San Diego
2015
The ExperiMetrix Workshop
“Mixture models of behavior and nuisance parameters: a semi-parametric Bayesian approach”
University of Alicante, Spain
2015
Interdisciplinary Health Seminar
“Hospital-insurer bargaining power and negotiated rates”
Purdue University
2015
8th Annual Midwest Graduate Student Summit on Applied Economics, Regional and Urban Studies
“Hospital-insurer bargaining power and negotiated rates”
Purdue University
2015
Economic Theory and Experiments seminar series
“Monotonicity, non-participation, and directed search equilibria”
The University of Melbourne
2012
The 6th Annual Australia New Zealand Workshop on Experimental Economics
“Coordination with third-party externalities”
Monash University, Clayton, Victoria, Australia
2011
National Honorurs Colloquium, Australian School of Business
“Coordination with third-party externalities”
The University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia
Grants and Awards
Summer Research Awards and Fellowships Program
“Statistical techniques for quantal response equilibrium”
The University of Toledo.
2020
Kohler International Travel Awards for Research and Teaching & International Program Development Award.
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The University of Toledo
2018
Summer Research Awards and Fellowships Program
“Quantifying the Costs of Behavioral Bias and Optimization Error in Risky Decision-Making”
The University of Toledo.
2017
Student Research Grant
Student Research Grant: “An Experimental Analysis of Equilibrium Selection in Coordination Games with Externalities”
The University of Melbourne
2010
External Service
Reviewer for Journal Articles
Economics letters, Experimental Economics, Games and Economic Behavior, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Journal of Economic Psychology, Frontiers in Behavioral Economics, Nature Human Behavior, Economics and Human Biology, Mathematics, Applied Economics
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Ongoing
Affiliations
The Economic Science Association, The American Economic Association
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Ongoing
Teaching
Spring
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The University of Toledo
2026
ECON 4/5820 Econometrics Models II
ECON 4/6260 Behavioral Economics
Fall
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2025
ECON 1150 Principles of Macroeconomics (2 sections)
ECON 4/5810 Econometrics Models I
SISS 8940 Seminar in Special Topics (Econometrics)
Fall
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2024
ECON 1150 Principles of Macroeconomics
ECON 1200 Principles of Microeconomics
ECON 4/5810 Econometrics Models I
SISS 8940 Seminar in Special Topics (Econometrics)
Summer
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2024
ECON 1200 Principles of Microeconomics
Spring
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2024
ECON 1010 Introduction to Economic Issues
ECON 1200 Principles of Microeconomics
ECON 4/5820 Econometrics Models II
Fall
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2023
ECON 1200 Principles of Microeconomics
ECON4/5810 Econometrics Models I
Spring
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2023
ECON 5810 Econometrics Models II
ECON 4/6260 Behavioral Economics
Fall
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2022
ECON 4/5810 Econometrics Models I
ECON 1200 Principles of Microeconomics
Spring
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2022
ECON 5820 Econometrics Models II
ECON 1200 Principles of Microeconomics (2 sections)
Spring
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2021
ECON 4/5820 Econometrics Models II
ECON 4/6260 Behavioral Economics
Fall
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2020
ECON 5810 Econometrics Models I
ECON 4810 Econometrics Models I
ECON 6810 Seminar in Applies Econometrics I
SISS 8940 Seminar in Special Topics (Econometrics)
Spring
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ECON 1200 Principles of Microeconomics
ECON 5820 Econometrics Models II
ECON 6830 Seminar: Applied Econometrics III
ECON 6960 Thesis
ECON 6990 Graduate Readings
Fall
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2019
ECON 5810 Econometrics Models I
ECON 4810 Econometrics Models I
ECON 1200 Principles of Microeconomics (2 sections)
ECON 6810 Seminar: Applies Econometrics I
ECON 6960 Thesis
SISS 8940 Seminar in Special Topics (Econometrics)
Summer
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ECON 1200 Principles of Microeconomics
ECON 1010 Introduction to Economic Issues
Spring
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ECON5820 Econometric Models II
ECON 6260 Behavioral Economics
ECON 4260 Behavioral Economics
ECON 4960 Senior Honors Thesis
ECON 6820 Seminar: Applied Econometrics II (Bayesian econometrics)
Fall
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2018
ECON1200 Principles of Microeconomics (two sections)
ECON5810 Econometric Models I
ECON6810 Seminar: Applied Econometrics I (Bayesian econometrics)
Summer
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ECON1200 Principles of Microeconomics (Distance learning, two sections)
Spring
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ECON1150 Principles of Macroeconomics
ECON5820 Econometric Models II
Fall
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2017
ECON1150 Principles of Macroeconomics
ECON5810 Econometric Models I
ECON4920 Readings (in microeconometrics)
SISS8940 Seminar in Special Topics (econometrics)
Spring
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ECON 1200 Principles of Microeconomics
ECON5820 Econometric Models II
ECON4820 Econometric Models II
Fall
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2016
ECON1200 Principles of Microeconomics
ECON5810 Econometric Models I
ECON4810 Econometric Models I
Summer
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Purdue University
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ECON590 Econometrics II (teaching assistant)
Summer
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2015
ECON590 Econometrics II (teaching assistant). Award: Krannert Certificate for Distinguished Teaching
Summer
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2014
ECON471 Behavioral Economics (instructor). Award: Krannert Certificate for Distinguished Teaching
Fall
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ECON251 Microeconomics (instructor for weekly review sessions)
Fall
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2012
ECON210 Principles of Economics (recitation instructor)
First Semester
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The University of Melbourne
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Microeconomics, Masters level (subject tutor)
First Semester
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2010
Chemical Engineering Management, undergraduate level (subject tutor)
Advanced Econometric Techniques, Masters level (subject tutor)