M. Keith Chen

M. Keith Chen is a Professor of Behavioral Economics at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, holding the Bing and Alice Liu Yang Endowed Term Chair in Management and Innovation within the Business & Economics faculty. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 2003 and a B.S. with honors in Mathematics from Stanford University in 1998. Prior to joining UCLA in 2013, he held positions as Assistant Professor (2003-2008) and Associate Professor (2008-2013) at Yale School of Management. Chen served as Head of Economic Research at Uber Technologies, where he redesigned the dynamic surge pricing model, and advises companies on behavioral economics, business strategy, and dynamic pricing.

Chen's research employs big data tools, including precise smartphone location data, to investigate intersections of economics, psychology, and biology. Topics include primate decision-making, the link between language structure and economic behaviors such as savings and health choices, COVID-19 transmission through nursing home staff networks, racial disparities in voting wait times and police exposure, and the value of flexible work arrangements. Key publications include "Racial Disparities in Voting Wait Times: Evidence from Smartphone Data" (joint with Kareem Haggag, Devin G. Pope, and Ryne Rohla; Review of Economics and Statistics, 2022); "Nursing Home Staff Networks and COVID-19" (joint with Judith Chevalier and Elisa Long; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2021); "The Value of Flexible Work: Evidence from Uber Drivers" (joint with Judith Chevalier, Peter Rossi, and Emily Oehlsen; Journal of Political Economy, 2019); "Politics Gets Personal: Effects of Political Partisanship and Advertising on Family Ties" (joint with Ryne Rohla; Science, 2018); "The Effect of Language on Economic Behavior: Evidence from Savings Rates, Health Behaviors, and Retirement Assets" (American Economic Review, 2013); and "How Basic are Behavioral Biases? Evidence from Capuchin-Monkey Trading Behavior" (joint with Venkat Lakshminarayanan and Laurie Santos; Journal of Political Economy, 2006). Awards include the 2021 UCLA Anderson MSBA Teaching Award, 2021 Bing and Alice Liu Yang Endowed Term Chair in Management and Innovation, 2018 Nature Editor's Choice, 2013 Science Editors’ Choice, 2008 Roger F. Murray Prize, and National Science Foundation Research Grants (2006-2011). He teaches MSBA competitive analytics, MBA core strategy, and Ph.D. behavioral economics.

Professional Email: keith.chen@anderson.ucla.edu