Manu Muñoz
Visiting Lecturer of Business, Organizations and Society
Affiliation: Visiting
Education: BA UIS (Colombia); MA U. Valencia (Spain); PhD U. Groningen (Netherlands)
Research Websites: Social Bee Lab
Research Areas: Behavioral Economics; Experimental Economics; Social Norms; Group Identities; Economic Inequality and Mobility; Social Networks
Manuel Muñoz is a behavioral and experimental economist whose work examines how social norms, group identities, and institutional design shape economic inequality, access to opportunities, and mobility. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Groningen, an MSc in Economics with distinction from the University of Valencia, and a BSc in Economics from the Industrial University of Santander. He is currently a Lecturer in Business, Organizations, and Society at New York University Abu Dhabi, a Global Faculty member in Business and Economics at Universidad Autónoma de Bucaramanga, and Scientific Director of the Social Behavior and Experimental Economics Laboratory. He is also a Research Fellow at the Center for Behavioral Institutional Design (NYU Abu Dhabi) and at the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research.
Muñoz’s recent and ongoing research uses field and laboratory experiments to explore questions of opportunity allocation, bias reduction, and the role of identity in decision-making. His single-authored work on identity change and economic mobility appeared in Games and Economic Behavior, and his collaborative research has been published in leading outlets such as the Journal of Law, Economics & Organization, Scientific Reports, Experimental Economics, and the Journal of the Economic Science Association. His current projects include studies on gender bias in job referrals, the effects of peer-referrals on training program take-up, and the behavioral mechanisms through which simple institutional nudges can close class gaps.
Muñoz has been awarded competitive grants from institutions including the Fonds National de la Recherche Luxembourg, the Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research, and the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competitiveness. His work has informed policy initiatives, with commissioned experimental evaluations for the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi. In recognition of his contributions, Muñoz has been invited to present at universities and conferences across Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, and he actively contributes to the academic community through seminar organization, conference leadership, and editorial service as a referee for top journals.