Biography

Name: Dr Don Ross

Contact: don.ross@ucc.ie  

Role: Professor

Academic Unit: Philosophy

Don is Professor of Philosophy at UCC, Professor of Economics at the University of Cape Town, and Program Director for Methodology at the Centre for Economic Analysis of Risk at Georgia State University. Don’s research focuses on experimental studies of risk and time preferences, gambling disorders and policy, addiction, economic methodology, the economics of road transport networks in Africa, economic choice in socially intelligent non-human animals, and the metaphysical implications of science. Don has done, and still does, extensive policy consulting for South African government and industries.

Thematic Expertise

Risk preferences; economic experiments; economic methodology; disordered gambling; gambling regulation; South African roads; addiction; choices by elephants; naturalized metaphysics

Geographical Expertise

Southern Africa

Relevant Projects

- Correlation aversion in smokers (South Africa)

- Risk preferences and cessation interventions with smokers (South Africa)

- Problem Gambling in Denmark

- Risk preferences and patterns of rugby betting in New Zealand

- Prioritization of the South African road network

Publications

Ross, D., Sharp, C., Vuchinich, R., & Spurrett, D. Midbrain Mutiny: The Behavioural Economics and Neuroeconomics of Disordered Gambling. MIT Press, 2008.

Ross, D., Philosophy of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Harrison, G., & Ross, D., Varieties of paternalism and the heterogeneity of utility structures. Journal of Economic Methodology 25: 42-67.

Ross, D. Decision-making and substance abuse: A South African perspective. In G. Ellis, D. Stein, K. Thomas and E. Meintjes, eds., Substance use and abuse in South Africa. Cape Town: UCT Press, 2012, pp. 185-200.

Ross, D., Syndrome stabilization in psychiatry: Pathological gambling as a case study. In H. Kincaid & J. Sullivan, eds., Classifying Psychopathology. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014, pp. 195-208.