Dr. Saurabh Bhargava is a behavioral economist and Visiting Scholar at NYU Wagner, and an academic affiliate of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT. He was previously an Associate Professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University, where he directed the undergraduate program in behavioral economics, and a Visiting Professor at Chicago Booth, where he taught courses on managerial decision-making informed by machine learning and AI.

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His research examines how individuals navigate complex economic choices and how governments and firms can improve outcomes in domains such as health insurance, retirement savings, social benefit programs, and employee motivation. He also investigates the determinants of happiness and well-being, particularly through the lens of time use and social context. His work has appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Economics, American Economic Review, Psychological Science, and JAMA. It has also been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, BBC, and NPR. He has written for the Harvard Business Review.

Dr. Bhargava has advised government agencies, policy organizations, Fortune 500 firms, and professional sports teams on behavioral economics, decision science, and data analytics. He has contributed to expert panels for the Aspen Institute, the Russell Sage Foundation, Brookings, the National Academies of Sciences, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He holds an AB in Economics from Harvard University and a PhD in Economics from UC Berkeley. He began his career at McKinsey & Company.