Saurabh Bhargava, PhD

Biography

Saurabh Bhargava is an Associate Professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University, an academic affiliate of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT and the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics at the University of Pennsylvania, and the Founder and Co-Director of the BEDR Policy Lab.  Dr. Bhargava’s research area of Behavioral Economics broadly explores decision-making, and optimal policy design, in the contexts of health insurance, retirement savings, program take-up, unemployment, medical adherence, and employee reward programs. A secondary line of research involves data-driven investigations into the determinants of happiness and emotional well-being. Dr. Bhargava’s work has been published in journals such as JAMA, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The American Economic Review, Psychological Science, and NEJM Catalyst and has received coverage from media outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vox, Barron’s, CNBC, Bloomberg, BBC News, NPR, and Politico. He has also published in the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal. Dr. Bhargava has consulted/collaborated with government agencies and social policy organizations including the IRS, DOJ, MDRC, Allegheny County Pretrial Services, as well as firms including the Pittsburgh Penguins, Careerbuilder.com, Voya Financial, PNC Financial Services, and AIG.  He has participated in expert roundtables hosted by The Aspen Institute, The Brookings Institution, CDC, GAO, Laura and John Arnold Foundation, and the Russell Sage Foundation. Formerly, he was a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation and an adjunct faculty at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. Prior to starting his academic career, he worked at Mckinsey & Co. He holds an AB degree from Harvard University and a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. Find his website here: www.saurbhar.com.