2012 Leigh Lecture Speaker, March 8, 2012, 7:00 p.m. CUB 177, refreshments following
Matthew Rabin
Edward G. and Nancy S. Jordon Professor of Economics at University of CA, Berkeley
BIO: Matthew Rabin is the Edward G. and Nancy S. Jordan Professor of Economics at UC Berkeley. He received his PhD from MIT in 1989, the same year he joined the Berkeley faculty as an assistant professor. He also is director of the Program in Psychological Economics and a member of the Russell Sage Foundation Behavioral Economics Roundtable. He has held endowed visiting professorships at the London School of Economics and Harvard. His honors include MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellowship; Econometric Society Fellow; John Bates Clark Medal from American Economic Association; Fellow of American Academy of Arts and Sciences; Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow; Graduate Economics Association, Outstanding Teaching Award; and the John von Neumann Award.
Incorporating More Realistic Psychology into Economics
Professor Rabin will explain recent efforts to combine the substance, techniques, and goals of standard economics with psychological factors previously under-emphasized by economists. He will present findings that suggest the need for modifying economic theory to include such phenomena as people mispredicting their own tastes or suffering from self-control problems, and briefly explain how economists are beginning to use this research to change and improve economics.