Daniel J. Benjamin

Daniel J. Benjamin is a Professor in the Behavioral Decision Making Area at UCLA's Anderson School of Management and concurrently in the Human Genetics Department at the David Geffen School of Medicine. He maintains dual appointments bridging economics, behavioral science, and genetics research.

His research spans behavioral economics and genoeconomics, with recent focus on statistical reasoning errors, survey-based well-being metrics for policy evaluation, and genetic predictors for social phenotypes like educational attainment. Earlier work examined links between economic behavior, cognitive ability, and social identity factors including ethnicity, race, gender, and religion.

As a Faculty Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research, he contributes to interdisciplinary scholarship at the intersection of social sciences and genetics. His methodological approach integrates psychological insights into economic frameworks while incorporating genetic data to understand human behavior.

Benjamin earned his academic credentials from Harvard University (Ph.D. in Economics, A.M. in Statistics) and the London School of Economics (M.Sc. in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics). Prior to UCLA, he held faculty positions at Cornell University and the University of Southern California, with postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research.