The poor often behave in less capable ways, which can further perpetuate poverty. We
hypothesize that poverty directly impedes cognitive function and present two studies that test this …

Abstract Machines are increasingly doing “intelligent” things. Face recognition algorithms
use a large dataset of photos labeled as having a face or not to estimate a function that …

We study race in the labor market by sending fictitious resumes to help-wanted ads in Boston
and Chicago newspapers. To manipulate perceived race, resumes are randomly assigned …

Behavioral Economics is the combination of psychology and economics that investigates
what happens in markets in which some of the agents display human limitations and …

Poor individuals often engage in behaviors, such as excessive borrowing, that reinforce the
conditions of poverty. Some explanations for these behaviors focus on personality traits of …

Can machine learning improve human decision making? Bail decisions provide a good test
case. Millions of times each year, judges make jail-or-release decisions that hinge on a …

Health systems rely on commercial prediction algorithms to identify and help patients with
complex health needs. We show that a widely used algorithm, typical of this industry-wide …

Most papers that employ Differences-in-Differences estimation (DD) use many years of data
and focus on serially correlated outcomes but ignore that the resulting standard errors are …

In this provocative book based on cutting-edge research, Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar
Shafir show that scarcity creates a distinct psychology for everyone struggling to manage with …

Much of our understanding of corporations builds on the idea that managers, when they are
not closely monitored, will pursue goals that are not in shareholders’ interests. But what …