Richard Zeckhauser

About

Richard Zeckhauser is the Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School. He graduated from Harvard College with summa cum laude honors and received his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is an elected fellow of the Econometric Society, the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Sciences), and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2014, he was named a Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association. His contributions to decision theory and behavioral economics include the development of concepts such as quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), status quo bias, betrayal aversion, and the role of ignorance—states of the world unknown—as a complement to the categories of risk and uncertainty. Many of his policy investigations explore ways to promote human health, improve market functioning, and foster informed and appropriate decision-making by individuals and government agencies. Zeckhauser has published over 330 articles and 14 books and edited volumes, with recent works including collaborations on topics such as public-private collaboration in China and the United States, Renaissance art markets, and governance. Beyond academia, he is a Senior Principal at Equity Resource Investments, a real estate private equity firm. He has also won multiple national championships in contract bridge.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Economics
• Geography
• Business
• Microeconomics
• Monetary economics
• Industrial organization
• Finance
• Law

Selected publications

• Investor Rewards to Climate Responsibility: Stock-Price Responses to the Opposite Shocks of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. Elections

  The Review of Corporate Finance Studies · 2021 · 151 citations

  Abstract Donald Trump’s 2016 election and his nomination of climate skeptic Scott Pruitt to head the Environmental Protection Agency drastically downshifted expectations about U.S. policy toward climate change. Joseph Biden’s 2020 election shifted them dramatically upward. We study firms’ stock-price movements in reaction to these changes. As expected, the 2016 election boosted carbon-intensive firms. Surprisingly, firms with climate-responsible strategies also gained, especially those firms hel…

  PublisherDOI

• Owning, Using, and Renting: Some Simple Economics of the “Sharing Economy”

  Management Science · 2020 · 94 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  New Internet-based “sharing-economy” markets enable consumer-owners to rent out their durable goods to nonowners. We model such markets and explore their equilibria both in the short run, in which ownership decisions are fixed, and in the long run, in which ownership decisions can be changed. We find that sharing-economy markets always expand consumption and increase surplus, but may increase or decrease ownership. Regardless, ownership is decoupled from individual preferences in the long run, a…

  DOI

• Risks in Renaissance Art

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2024-01-11 · 10 citations

  bookOpen accessSenior author

  This Element represents the first systematic study of the risks borne by those who produced, commissioned, and purchased art, across Renaissance Europe. It employs a new methodology, built around concepts from risk analysis and decision theory. The Element classifies scores of documented examples of losses into 'production risks', which arise from the conception of a work of art until its final placement, and 'reception risks', when a patron, a buyer, or viewer finds a work displeasing, inapprop…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The Dragon, the Eagle, and the Private Sector: Public-Private Collaboration in China and the United States

  2021-02-18 · 2 citations

  bookSenior author

  The governments of China and the United States - despite profound differences in history, culture, economic structure, and political ideology - both engage the private sector in the pursuit of public value. This book employs the term collaborative governance to describe relationships where neither the public nor private party is fully in control, arguing that such shared discretion is needed to deliver value to citizens. This concept is exemplified across a wide range of policy arenas, such as c…

  PublisherDOI

• The Dragon, the Eagle, and the Private Sector

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2021-02-05 · 2 citations

  bookSenior author

  The governments of China and the United States - despite profound differences in history, culture, economic structure, and political ideology - both engage the private sector in the pursuit of public value. This book employs the term collaborative governance to describe relationships where neither the public nor private party is fully in control, arguing that such shared discretion is needed to deliver value to citizens. This concept is exemplified across a wide range of policy arenas, such as c…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R03HS013362

  NIH · $93k · 2005

Frequent coauthors

• Alexander F. Wagner

  London School of Economics and Political Science

  130 shared

• W. Kip Viscusi

  103 shared

• Alexandre Ziegler

  University of Zurich

  64 shared

• David Cutler

  Harvard University

  51 shared

• Gernot Wagner

  49 shared

• Mark Freeman

  43 shared

• Jayendu Patel

  Harvard University

  40 shared

• Nolan Miller

  39 shared

Awards & honors

• Fellow of the Econometric Society
• Fellow of the Institute of Medicine (National Academy of Sci…
• Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Distinguished Fellow of the American Economic Association (2…

Similar researchers at Harvard University

• Joseph Newhouseh-104
• Gordon Hansonh-99
• Robert Stavinsh-97