Influential economics scholar Sendhil Mullainathan, 45, will be joining the University of Chicago Booth School of Business faculty July 1, as a “University Professor” leaving his current position as the Robert C. Wagoner Professor of Economics at Harvard University.
Mullainathan’s research spans broad areas of economics: behavioral, labor, public economics and corporate finance, and most recently has focused on the intersection of machine learning and public policy. His seminal research includes topics ranging from the impact of poverty on mental bandwidth, to showing that higher cigarette taxes make smokers happier, Booth noted in a May 21 press release.
“Sendhil is a phenomenal scholar, whose work has had great impact in a variety of fields,” Madhav Rajan, Booth Dean and George Pratt Shultz Professor of Accounting is quoted saying in the press release.“Sendhil’s history of collaboration across disciplines will strengthen ties among Booth’s research areas and deepen the school’s connections to the rest of the university,” Rajan added.
Born in a small village in India, Mullainathan came to the U.S. with his parents at the age of 7, to live in the Los Angeles area. A graduate of Cornell University, Mullainathan did his Ph.D. in economics at Harvard in 1998. He taught at Massachusetts Institute of Technology until 2004, and then moved to Harvard, where he is a professor of economics and affiliate of Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
Mullainathan has published more than 50 journal articles, including 14 papers in top economics journals.
By Lokesh
