Roland Benabou

About

Roland J. M. Bénabou is the Theodore A. Wells '29 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, where he joined the faculty in 1999. He holds a joint appointment in the Department of Economics and the School of Public and International Affairs. His research spans both macroeconomic and microeconomic areas, including the interplay of inflation and imperfect competition, as well as speculation and manipulation in financial markets. His recent work focuses on three main areas: the relationship between inequality, growth, social mobility, and the political economy of redistribution; the role of education, social interactions, and the socioeconomic structure of cities; and the intersection of economics and psychology, particularly behavioral economics, examining extrinsic incentives versus intrinsic motivation, prosocial behavior, and motivated beliefs at both individual and collective levels. Bénabou is a distinguished member of numerous academic societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Econometric Society, and the French Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques. He has served as a coeditor of the American Economic Review and has been involved with various other leading economic journals. His academic credentials include a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Research topics

• Sociology
• Political Science
• Economics
• Natural resource economics
• Development economics
• Law
• Microeconomics
• Market economy
• Political economy

Selected publications

• Environmental Preferences and Technological Choices: Is Market Competition Clean or Dirty?

  American Economic Review Insights · 2023 · 106 citations

  We investigate the effects of consumers’ environmental concerns and market competition on firms’ decisions to innovate in “clean” technologies. Agents care about their consumption and environmental footprint; firms pursue greener products to soften price competition. Acting as complements, these forces determine R&D, pollution, and welfare. We test the theory using panel data on patents by 7,060 automobile sector firms in 25 countries, environmental willingness to pay, and competition. As pr…

  PublisherDOI

• Forbidden Fruits: The Political Economy of Science, Religion, and Growth

  The Review of Economic Studies · 2021 · 53 citations

  1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract We study the co-evolution of religion, science, and politics. We first uncover, in international and U.S. data, a robust negative relationship between religiosity and patents per capita. The model then combines: (1) scientific discoveries that raise productivity but sometimes erode religious beliefs; (2) a government that allows innovations to diffuse, or blocks them; (3) religious institutions that can invest in doctrinal reform. Three long-term outcomes emerge. The “Western-European S…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Image versus Information: Changing Societal Norms and Optimal Privacy

  American Economic Journal Microeconomics · 2020-07-27 · 41 citations

  articleSenior author

  We analyze the costs and benefits of using social image to foster desirable behaviors. Each agent acts based on his intrinsic motivation, private assessment of the public good, and reputational concern for appearing prosocial. A Principal sets the general degree of privacy, observes the social outcome, and implements a policy: investment, subsidy, law, etc. Individual visibility reduces free riding but makes aggregate behavior (“descriptive norm”) less informative about societal preferences (“pr…

  PublisherDOI

• Ends versus Means: Kantians, Utilitarians, and Moral Decisions

  National Bureau of Economic Research · 2024-01-01 · 6 citations

  reportOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Choosing what is morally right can be based on the consequences (ends) resulting from the decision -the Consequentialist view -or on the conformity of the means involved with some overarching notion of duty -the Deontological view.Using a series of experiments, we investigate the overall prevalence and the consistency of consequentialist and deontological decision-making, when these two moral principles come into conflict.Our design includes a realstakes version of the classical trolley dilemma,…

  PublisherDOI

• Laws and Norms

  Journal of Political Economy · 2025-08-25 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  National audience

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Identity and Ideology: Cognitive Foundations and Policy Implications

  NSF · $136k · 2004–2007

Frequent coauthors

• Jean Tirole

  Toulouse School of Economics

  228 shared

• Andrea Vindigni

  IZA - Institute of Labor Economics

  103 shared

• Davide Ticchi

  Marche Polytechnic University

  89 shared

• Marco Battaglini

  25 shared

• Armin Falk

  BRIQ Institute on Behavior and Inequality

  25 shared

• Philippe Aghion

  Collège de France

  20 shared

• George Loewenstein

  19 shared

• S. Nageeb Ali

  14 shared

Awards & honors

• Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Corresponding member of the French Académie des Sciences Mor…
• Fellow of the Econometric Society
• Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Resear…
• Research Fellow of the Center for Economic Policy Research

Similar researchers at Princeton University

• Gene M. Grossmanh-94
• Alan S. Blinderh-84
• Markus Brunnermeierh-70