David Huffman Promoted to Distinguished Professor

It is our great pleasure to announce that David Huffman has been promoted to the special faculty rank of Distinguished Professor of Economics as of October 1, 2024.

Since his arrival in 2015, David has added significant visibility to the department’s national and international reputation in experimental and behavioral economics. His research on elicitation of preferences and the understanding of the origin and impact of preference heterogeneity has been internationally recognized. An example of some of the most ambitious work on this agenda was a collaboration with the Gallup World Poll, a global survey covering 76 countries and 80,000 respondents, which resulted in the inclusion of questions to measure fundamental aspects of economic preferences, including time discounting, risk preference, altruism, positive reciprocity, negative reciprocity, and trust. This high-quality, properly validated data is publicly available to researchers worldwide, an impactful contribution to social sciences at large.

David has expanded the department’s distinction in experimental economics to include field experimental research, working directly with firms and organizations to examine the psychological and behavioral aspects of how workers react to monetary incentives. This research has resulted in practical insights of relevance for workers and organizations. David’s expertise in this type of research has also benefited our PhD students, exposing them to frontier innovative research, and our masters’ students, preparing them with valuable tools for industry and government jobs.

David has been an excellent citizen in department, serving as chair for a term, and also as acting MQE director, among many other contributions. His impact on the profession, our students, and the department are extraordinary. We are very proud and lucky to have David in our faculty. Please join me in congratulating him on this well-deserved promotion!