Matthijs R. Wildenbeest joined IU in 2007, right after earning his Ph.D. in Economics from Erasmus University in the Netherlands. He’s currently teaching Business Econometrics in the undergraduate program and Predictive Analytics for Business Strategy in the online MBA program. In recent years, he’s also taught Predictive Analytics for Business Strategy in the residential MBA program and Business Econometrics in the online MBA program. Prior to that, he taught Managerial Economics in the undergraduate program and Economics for Managers in the online MBA program.
Wildenbeest, who was appointed a Weimer Faculty Fellow for his research contributions and invited to be a keynote speaker at an international conference in his field, has a number of papers in which he studies consumer search behavior.
“To what extent consumers are searching for product characteristics and prices is important for the competitiveness of markets,” says Wildenbeest. “If consumers compare prices at many different retailers when searching for a particular product, this will put downward pressure on prices.”
In several of his papers, Wildenbeest has developed empirical methods to measure search costs in markets such as those for books, electricity, and cars. In addition to search, he’s also currently working on pricing in digital markets. In one such project, he’s studying how the use of algorithmic pricing affects competition on platforms.
Matthijs Wildenbeest
“More and more sellers on platforms such as Amazon Marketplace have outsourced their pricing decisions to third-party firms that use artificial intelligence to determine what prices are optimal, and there is currently a debate about whether these algorithms can learn to work together to set higher prices,” says Wildenbeest. “In our paper, we look at what simple rules a platform can use to make it more difficult for algorithms to collude.”
One of the most rewarding aspects of his job is seeing the impact of his research—for instance, when it has had an impact on policy decisions or an impact through citations in other journal articles.
Wildenbeest and his spouse Phuong have two children: Esmee (9) and Liam (6), as well as two guinea pigs and three fish. In his free time, he enjoys running and usually participates in the Indianapolis Mini-Marathon annually. He’s also run the Indianapolis Marathon in 2014 and the Amsterdam Marathon in 2016.
“Bloomington is a great place to live,’ says Wildenbeest. “Despite being a small town, there’s a wide variety of restaurants, cultural activities, and lots of things to do for the kids. We like to be outdoors, and I found it pretty amazing how many trails there are, which is great for running and biking.”
The family also likes to travel, and since he and his wife both grew up in the Netherlands, they typically go back once a year to visit family and friends. Before they had kids, they once made a one-month, round-the-world trip that took them to Europe, Asia, Australia, and back to the U.S.
Though the pandemic caused everyone to press pause on travel, Wildenbeest made the best of the situation by exploring in and around the Hoosier state.
“We found that it’s not always necessary to travel far,” says Wildenbeest. “For instance, we have learned that Indiana has many great State parks. We’ve visited a number of them in the past year.”
He looks forward to attending IU basketball games again and still recalls the first time he stepped inside Assembly Hall for a game.
“In Europe college sports are not very common and certainly not practiced at the level of the NCAA, so I was quite impressed by the whole experience, including the size of the stadium and the dedication of the fans,” says Wildenbeest. “When we have someone over from Europe, we try to take them to see a game because it’s such a unique experience!”
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