Ockenfels received his Diplom in economics from the University of Bonn in 1994, where he studied under Reinhard Selten.

He publishes in leading journals in economics, but also in business administration, information systems, psychology, and sociology, as well as in application-oriented outlets.

His "Theory of Equity, Reciprocity, and Competition" (co-authored with Gary E. Bolton) is one of the most cited papers in economics.

[1] Ockenfels is a Member of the Berlin-Brandenburgische and of the North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, the Academic Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology, and Contributing Author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Ockenfels was awarded the 1.5 million Euro Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize, Germany's highest research honor, by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in 2005.