Carnegie Mellon University

A Ph.D. in Behavioral Economics From the Field's Pioneers

Companies, organizations and even governments—particularly the United States following former President Barack Obama’s 2015 executive order to incorporate behavioral insights to better serve the American people—are turning to behavioral economics at a rapid pace. The reason: Smartly designed and implemented behavioral interventions change the way we make decisions, alter the way organizations operate and influence how policies are implemented.

The roots of behavioral economics started at Carnegie Mellon University, with the late Herbert Simon, a Nobel laureate in Economics, and current faculty member George Loewenstein, a co-founder of the field. Now, students looking to do cutting-edge research at the intersection of economics and psychology can get the first and only Ph.D. in behavioral economics. 

A joint program through the Dietrich College’s Department of Social and Decision Sciences and Tepper School of Business, the degree integrates psychology with economics in a way that is not found anywhere else. This new Ph.D. program builds on the world-renowned behavioral economics faculty from the Department of Social and Decision Sciences and the outstanding economics faculty from the Tepper School of Business. 

And it’s offered by the only academic institution with an undergraduate degree in Behavioral Economics.

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