Colin Farrell Camerer (born December 4, 1959) is an American behavioral economist, and Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Finance and Economics at the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

(Caltech).

Background

A former

child prodigy A child prodigy is, technically, a child under the age of 10 who produces meaningful work in some domain at the level of an adult expert. The term is also applied more broadly to describe young people who are extraordinarily talented in some f ...

, Camerer received a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in quantitative studies from

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

in 1976 (at age 16), followed by an

M.B.A. A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

finance Finance refers to monetary resources and to the study and Academic discipline, discipline of money, currency, assets and Liability (financial accounting), liabilities. As a subject of study, is a field of Business administration, Business Admin ...

from the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in 1979 and a Ph.D. in behavioral

decision theory Decision theory or the theory of rational choice is a branch of probability theory, probability, economics, and analytic philosophy that uses expected utility and probabilities, probability to model how individuals would behave Rationality, ratio ...

from that same institution in 1981 (at age 21) for thesis titled ''The Validity and Utility of Expert Judgment'' under the supervision of Hillel Einhorn and Robin Hogarth. Camerer worked at Kellogg, Wharton, and the University of Chicago

Booth School of Business The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (branded as Chicago Booth) is the Postgraduate education, graduate business school of the University of Chicago, a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in ...

before moving to Caltech in 1994. Camerer's research is on the interface between

cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of human mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, whi ...

and

economics Economics () is a behavioral science that studies the Production (economics), production, distribution (economics), distribution, and Consumption (economics), consumption of goods and services. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interac ...

. This work seeks a better understanding of the

psychological Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

and

neurobiological Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

basis of decision-making in order to determine the validity of models of human economic behavior. His research uses mostly economics experiments—and occasionally field studies—to understand how people behave when making decisions (e.g., risky gambles for money), in games, and in markets (e.g., speculative price bubbles). He spoke at the Econometric Society World Congress in London on August 20, 2005, and at the Nobel Centennial Symposium in 2001 on Behavioral and Experimental Economics. He is the author of "Behavioral Game Theory" published by

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

in 2003. During the late 1990s and until mid-2008, Camerer began instructing college courses in fields such as Cognitive Psychology, Microeconomic Theory, Behavioral Economics, and Organizational Design. These courses were held at a variety of different universities, including the aforementioned California Institute of Technology and additionally

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

. In September 2013, Camerer was named a

MacArthur fellow The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and colloquially called the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to typically between 20 and 30 individuals workin ...

Fever Records

In 1983, Camerer started a

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

called "Fever Records" as "an economics experiment". Bands that he signed to the label include the Dead Milkmen,

Big Black Big Black was an American punk rock band from Evanston, Illinois, active from 1981 to 1987. Founded first as a solo project by singer and guitarist Steve Albini, the band became a trio with an initial lineup that included guitarist Santiago Dur ...

and Get Smart!. The label was part of the

Enigma Records Enigma Records (also known as Enigma Entertainment Corporation) was a popular rock and alternative American record label in the 1980s. History Enigma Records launched as a division of Greenworld Distribution, an independent music importer/d ...

group of labels. Another Fever Records was founded in the 1980s in New York City to distribute rap records, and has no connection.

Selected bibliography

* *

References

External links

Personal webpage at Caltech

"Mind Reading: The New Science of Decision Making", from ''Newsweek''

Colin Camerer's CV
{{DEFAULTSORT:Camerer, Colin 1959 births Living people 21st-century American economists American behavioral economists American game theorists Johns Hopkins University alumni University of Chicago Booth School of Business alumni California Institute of Technology faculty MacArthur Fellows Fellows of the Econometric Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences