Matias Gomez Seeber

Matias Gomez Seeber

I am a second-year PhD student in Economics at the University of British Columbia, with declared fields in Political Economy and Labor. I have broad interests, including behavioral economics and applied microeconomics.

Posts by Collection

publications

Momentum-Stopping: Effects on Performance

Published in Sports Economics Review, 2024

Does success breed success? Psychological momentum theory suggests that past achievements might influence future performance. However, distinguishing between psychological and strategic momentum — where a player’s effort shifts based on relative position — is challenging. In this paper, using a novel dataset from professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive matches, I focus on technical timeouts. These timeouts don’t affect player position but may disrupt psychological momentum. I find that a winning [losing] team with significant momentum sees a 13 [11.7] percentage points increased chance of losing [winning] the following round after calling for such a timeout. This shows that psychological momentum significantly affects performance and that timeouts can reset the momentum.

Recommended citation: Gómez Seeber, Matías J. (2024). "Momentum-Stopping: Effects on Performance." Sports Economics Review. 7.
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The economic costs and consequences of (insufficient) sleep: a case study from Latin America

Published in The European Journal of Health Economics, 2024

Sleep, an essential physiological process, has long been recognized for its critical role in human health and well-being. Beyond its biological significance, recent research has highlighted the intricate interplay between sleep and economic outcomes. By constructing meticulous economic models that account for diverse factors and refining them based on empirical data and local characteristics, this study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the significant economic toll stemming from inadequate sleep and its ramifications on various aspects of society. Here we calculated the effect of insufficient sleep on economic loss in Argentina, according to an Overlapping Generations (OLG) model that considers average sleeping length in terms of the recommended minimum and its effect on productivity and health outcomes. We considered different scenarios in which the population sleeps from six to nine hours every night. Our results indicate that if the whole adult population achieved the recommended sleep duration of at least 7 h/night, it would be associated with a 1.27% higher GDP compared to the baseline scenario, representing the most optimistic outcome. This equals about 3.7 times the total annual budget in science, and is approximately the same percentage as the actually implemented national budget for education. In summary, by bridging the usually distant realms of biology and economics, this study offers a comprehensive analysis that not only deepens our understanding of the mechanisms underlying these costs but also provides potential avenues for intervention and policy-making.

Recommended citation: Anauati et al. (2024). "The economic costs and consequences of (insufficient) sleep: a case study from Latin America." The European Journal of Health Economics. 7.
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Peer Effects in a Long Run

Published in Working Paper, 2025

Is it better to be a big fish in a small pond or a small fish in a big pond? We study how initial rank affects short- and long-run effort using a natural experiment in a high-effort setting. Using an RDD around cutoffs, we find that individuals assigned to a lower quality group exert a higher effort at the start but, by the end of the task, show no differences in performance with respect to those assigned to a higher quality group, which suggests burnout. We are actively developing a dynamic model of effort choice and Bayesian learning.

Recommended citation: Gómez Seeber, Matías J., Zarate, Pablo, and Lee, Allan. (2025). "Peer Effects in a Long Run." Working Paper.

Linking Knowledge and Creativity

Published in Working Paper, 2025

The relationship between knowledge and creativity has long been a subject of debate: Does knowledge foster or limit creative output? I employ a Difference-In-Difference approach with a novel panel dataset from a popular racing game, spanning over 15 years and encompassing all individuals who created or raced tracks. This comprehensive dataset allows us to analyze the knowledge-creativity dynamic across a large population and an extended period; a significant advancement over prior research, which was often focused on the creative careers of a few individuals. Initial findings reveal a consistent positive relationship between knowledge and creativity, supporting the ‘foundation view’ that accumulated knowledge increases creativity.

Recommended citation: Gómez Seeber, Matías J. (2025). "Linking Knowledge and Creativity." Working Paper.

talks

teaching

Game Theory Lecturer

Undergraduate course, Universidad de San Andrés, Department of Economics, 2024

Term: Spring 2024-Autumn 2025