David Isaac Laibson (born June 26, 1966) is an American economist and professor at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, where he has taught since 1994. His research focuses on

macroeconomics Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the performance, structure, behavior, and decision-making of an economy as a whole. This includes regional, national, and global economies. Macroeconomists study topics such as output (econ ...

intertemporal choice In economics, intertemporal choice is the study of the relative value people assign to two or more payoffs at different points in time. This relationship is usually simplified to today and some future date. Intertemporal choice was introduced by ...

behavioral economics Behavioral economics is the study of the psychological (e.g. cognitive, behavioral, affective, social) factors involved in the decisions of individuals or institutions, and how these decisions deviate from those implied by traditional economi ...

, and

neuroeconomics Neuroeconomics is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field that seeks to explain human decision-making, the ability to process multiple alternatives and to follow through on a plan of action. It studies how economic behavior can shape our u ...

. In 2016, he became chairman of the Harvard economics department.

Life and career

Laibson was raised by Ruth and Peter Laibson in

Haverford, Pennsylvania Haverford is an Unincorporated area#United States, unincorporated community located in both Haverford Township, Pennsylvania, Haverford Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States, and Lower Merion Township, Pennsylvania, Lower Merio ...

. He received an AB (''summa'') from Harvard in 1988, studying under

Benjamin M. Friedman Benjamin Morton Friedman (; born 1944) is an American political economist, who is the William Joseph Maier Professor of Political Economy at Harvard University. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Brookings Institute's Panel ...

, and went on to win a

Marshall Scholarship The Marshall Scholarship is a postgraduate scholarship for "intellectually distinguished young Americans ndtheir country's future leaders" to study at any university in the United Kingdom. It is considered among the most prestigious scholarsh ...

to study at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

( MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics). He received his

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

in 1994 and joined the faculty at Harvard once he graduated. He has since gained tenure. He is married to the mathematician Nina Zipser, and they have a son, Max. At Harvard, he teaches Economics 2030: Psychology and Economics. He also co-teaches Economics 10, the year-long introductory economics class at Harvard, together with

Jason Furman Jason Furman (born August 18, 1970) is an American economist and professor at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. On June 10, 2013, Fur ...

. His research has been published in prestigious journals such as the '' QJE'', '' AER'', '' JEP'', ''

Econometrica ''Econometrica'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal of economics, publishing articles in many areas of economics, especially econometrics. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Econometric Society. The current editor-in-chief is ...

'', and ''

Science Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...

''.

References

External links

The Psychology of Savings and Investment
a series of three talks by David Laibson at the London School of Economics and Political Science, Nov 19–21, 2007. {{DEFAULTSORT:Laibson, David 1966 births People from Haverford Township, Pennsylvania Harvard University alumni Alumni of the London School of Economics Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Harvard University faculty Living people Marshall Scholars Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences 20th-century American economists 21st-century American economists American behavioral economists