Keith Chen

Keith Chen is a Professor of Behavioral Economics and Strategy at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, holding the Bing (’86) and Alice Liu Yang Endowed Term Chair in Management and Innovation. He bridges economics, psychology, and biology using big data to explore human behavior drivers. His email is keith.chen@anderson.ucla.edu, and his office is in Entrepreneurs Hall C-513.

Chen earned a Ph.D. in Economics (2003, Harvard University) and a B.S. in Mathematics (1998, Stanford University). His research spans behavioral economics, competitive strategy, intertemporal choice, and environmental economics, with recent work using smartphone location data to analyze societal issues like pandemic spread and racial disparities.

• 2022: Racial disparities in voting wait times
• 2021: Nursing home networks during COVID-19
• 2019: Flexible work economics (Uber drivers)
• 2018: Partisan impacts on family ties
• 2013: Language's influence on economic behavior

His accolades include the 2021 Endowed Term Chair, multiple Nature/Science Editor’s Choice recognitions, and the National Science Foundation Research Grant (2006–2011). Chen advises companies on behavioral economics and dynamic pricing, notably redesigning Uber’s surge pricing model.