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Behavioural Insights
Thoughtful analysis of how psychology shapes financial behaviour, spending habits, and long term decision making, translating academic research into practical insights that help individuals make smarter, more intentional financial choices.
Fraud in Academia
The pressure to publish is ever increasing. The motto “publish or perish” has become uncomfortably close to the truth. It is the level...
Merle van den Akker
Jun 17, 20196 min read
Why is Academia so damn SLOW?!
When I check up on how my friends are doing -- friends from all over the world -- we talk about our social lives, our families, our...
Merle van den Akker
Jun 13, 20198 min read
Automated Decision-Making and Ethics
We are moving towards an increasingly automated society. This is a society ruled by algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI - which,...
Merle van den Akker
Jun 10, 20195 min read
Mental Accounting: One Size does not fit All
I have written multiple articles on Mental Accounting. It’s an interesting topic to me (and to many others, I mean, it did win a Nobel...
Merle van den Akker
Jun 6, 20195 min read
How to make Meetings WORK
I have recently come to realise that I have quite a few meetings in a week. Now as an academic (to be), the amount of meetings I have...
Merle van den Akker
Jun 3, 20195 min read
What I learned from posting 100 articles
The big 100. It has been achieved. But achievements are worth so much more when you have actually learned something from them. And being...
Merle van den Akker
May 30, 20196 min read
When Mental Accounting Backfires...
I have already written some articles about mental accounting before, but those articles mainly focused on explaining how it worked, and...
Merle van den Akker
May 27, 20194 min read
What is happening to Education?!
I’m becoming more and more worried about education. There are several reasons to become worried and I will outline all of them below. Let...
Merle van den Akker
May 23, 20196 min read
How to pick your PhD Supervisor
Deciding to do a PhD is a whole process. Doing the PhD itself is an even more arduous, and often longer process. For a significant number...
Merle van den Akker
May 20, 20195 min read
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