Joshua R. Schwartzstein

Joshua R. Schwartzstein is the Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, specializing in behavioral economics. He holds a PhD in Economics from Harvard University and a BA in Behavioral Economics, Economics, and Mathematics from Cornell University. His research focuses on integrating psychologically realistic assumptions about attention, perception, and learning into economic models to inform managerial and policy decisions.

• Affiliations: Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School
• Key Research Themes: Behavioral hazard in health insurance, selective attention and learning, relative thinking in consumer behavior, and the design of effective persuasion models.

His work bridges theoretical contributions with empirical applications, such as field experiments with seaweed farmers and analyses of clinical trial data. Notable awards include the 2025 Arrow Award for 'Representation and Extrapolation' and recognition for 'Behavioral Hazard in Health Insurance' in 2016.

Professor Schwartzstein’s research emphasizes practical policy implications, such as optimizing health insurance copay structures and improving decision-making through better data presentation. His recent work explores how model persuaders influence beliefs and how selective attention perpetuates suboptimal outcomes in both markets and organizations.