Axel Ockenfels studied economics at the University of Bonn until 1994. He earned his doctorate and habilitation at the University of Magdeburg, with stays abroad at Penn State University and Harvard University. He then worked as an Emmy Noether junior research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Economic Systems in Jena. In 2003, he became a professor of economics at the University of Cologne. Since August 2023, he has been a scientific member and director at the Max Planck Institute for Behavioral Economics in Bonn. Since 2025, he has been the founding director of the Adenauer School of Government at the University of Cologne.