Sendhil Mullainathan

Sendhil Mullainathan is a Professor of Economics at Harvard University and the Roman Family University Professor of Computation and Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He helped co-found ideas 42, a nonprofit to apply behavioral science to social problems, and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, a center to promote the use of randomized control trials in development. Mullainathan has produced a diverse set of research in behavioral economics including: the impact of poverty on mental bandwidth; using fictitious resumes to measure discrimination; showing that higher cigarette taxes make smokers happier; and modeling how competition affects media bias. His latest research focuses on using machine learning and data mining techniques to better understand human behavior. He was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2002.