Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in Behavioral-Economic Theory

School:
Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Professor Matthew Rabin seeks full‑time, pre‑doctoral research fellows. The position is ideal for candidates interested in pursuing PhD studies in Economics, particularly those with an interest in psychologically‑grounded economic theory.

Fellows will aid Professor Rabin and others in formally drawing out the implications of theoretical models in both “behavioral” and “classical” economic theory. Particular emphasis will be put in psychologically‑grounded models that attempt to rigorously improve the psychological realism of economic theory. Examples of such improvements include incorporating limited rationality (e.g., errors in statistical reasoning, errors in interpreting others’ behavior), time‑inconsistent preferences (self‑control problems, utility misprediction), and more general utility functions (e.g., dependent on expectations, self‑image, and other beliefs) into our models.
* This research agenda maintains the conventional mathematical tools and formalism of economic theory, and is outlined in Rabin’s 2013 AER and JEL papers. The goal is to develop and evaluate models that can broadly improve economics, rather than over‑stating the successes or failures of theories by cherry picking examples, or ignoring the cases where the new theories make worse predictions than classical economics or competing new general formulations.

The research assistance needed will reflect this goal: participants will be asked to rigorously work out both realistic and unrealistic implications of models in areas such as game theory, choice under uncertainty, belief updating, social learning, etc.

• Analyze the implications of psychologically‑foundational theoretical models in concert with Professor Rabin and other research assistants, students, and collaborators. Such analysis includes formalizing and proving or disproving some common conjectures and intuitions proffered for the implications of new theories, providing general comparative‑statistics and calibration results, and working out examples and applications of models to different situations.
• Contribute to the development of publicly available pedagogical materials for teaching, and to help others incorporate the models and evidence into their own research. Develop tools to streamline the application of these models.
• Assist with specific research papers on psychologically‑grounded economic theory.
• Conduct literature reviews on theory and evidence broadly related to behavioral economics.
• Analyze and evaluate what existing empirical and experimental evidence tells us about different behavioral theories.

So long as compatible with fully performing duties associated with the position, pre‑doctorial fellows will have the opportunity to participate in the Harvard academic community, including attending seminars, workshops, and courses. In addition to working with Professor Rabin, fellows will work with other pre‑doctorial fellows, students, and faculty also working with Professor Rabin. The position is theory‑oriented. So in addition to enhancing literacy in behavioral and other fields in economics, it will help improve proficiency applying theoretical models, and help develop skills for formulating new theoretical models, both “behavioral” and “classical”.

The position is also likely to be useful for those planning to do rigorous mainstream empirical research with an interest in having that analysis be on firm psychological and theoretical foundations. But the position won’t be as effective as most other pre‑doc positions in improving empirical or data‑related skills.

This is a full‑time position, with…