Philipp Koellinger's research interests are in the fields of geno-economics, behavioural economics and entrepreneurship and innovation. His research focuses in particular on the influence of genes, cognitive limits and emotions on economic behaviour and takes entrepreneurship as a particularly vivid and relevant example. Koellinger is the principal researcher and co-founder of the Gentrepreneur Consortium and the Social Science Genetic Association Consortium, two consortia which focus on geno-economics. This newly emerging field of research studies the molecular genetics of economic behaviour. Koellinger seeks to align his geno-economic research with the UvA’s research priority areas 'Behavioural Economics' and 'Brain and Cognition'.

Koellinger has been affiliated with the department of Applied Economics of the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) since 2006 and has held the position of associate professor there since 2012. He will remain active at the Erasmus University Rotterdam for one day a week as co-director of the interdisciplinary research institute EURIBEB (Erasmus University Rotterdam Institute of Biology and Economic Behaviour). Koellinger wants to foster collaboration in the area of geno-economics between the UvA's Amsterdam Business School (ABS)and the Erasmus School of Economics through, for example, joint doctoral programmes and research projects.

Koellinger is a research follow of the interuniversity Tinbergen Institute. He is also an editorial member of staff of the academic journal Small Business Economics. Koellinger has published numerous articles in authoritative scientific journals such as Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Economic Perspectives and – very recently – in Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).