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Saurabh Bhargava

sbhar@andrew.cmu.edu

Saurabh Bhargava is an Associate Professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University, an academic affiliate of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, and the Founder and Co-Director of the BEDR Policy Lab. Saurabh's research, in the area of Behavioral Economics, primarily explores decision-making, and optimal policy design, in the contexts of health insurance, retirement savings, program take-up, unemployment, medical adherence, and employee reward programs. A secondary line of research involves data-driven investigations into the determinants of happiness and well-being. 

Saurabh’s work has been published in journals such as JAMA, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The American Economic Review, Psychological Science, and NEJM Catalyst and has received coverage from media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vox, CNBC, Bloomberg, Barron's, BBC News, New York Magazine, NPR, and Politico. He has also published in the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal. Prior to starting his academic career, Saurabh worked at Mckinsey & Co. He holds an AB degree from Harvard University and a PhD in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

New Research

1. Bhargava, S. “Experienced Love: An Empirical Account,” Psychological Science, Vol. 35, Issue 7, 2023 (Online First). [Lead Article]

2. Bhargava, S., and Hyde, T. “Partition at Your Own Risk: Evidence on Risk-Taking Prevalence and Motives from the Field,” 2024. [Under Review]

3. Bhargava, S., and Conell-Price, L. “Serenity Now, Save Tomorrow? Evidence on Retirement Savings Puzzles from a 401(k) Field Experiment,” 2022. [Under Review]

4. Bhargava, S., Conell-Price, L., Mason, R., and Benartzi, S. “Save(d) by Design?” 2021. [Under Review]

5. Bhargava, S., and Connolly, D., “Does Noise Trump Bias? Candidate Polarization with Noisy Voters,” 2023.

6. Bhargava, S. “New Evidence on the Hedonic and Time-Use Consequences of Children,” 2020. 

Health

Household Finance

Policy

Well-Being

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