Rate My Professor Nathan Berg

Nathan Berg is Professor and DCC Chair in Entrepreneurship in the Department of Economics at the University of Otago's Otago Business School. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics (2001) and an M.A. in Mathematics (2001), both with honors from the University of Kansas, along with a B.A. in American Studies (1995) with distinction and Phi Beta Kappa honors from the same university. Berg joined the University of Otago in 2012 as Associate Professor, served as Academic Leader of the Doctor of Business Administration program from 2016 to 2017, and was promoted to Professor and appointed DCC Chair in Entrepreneurship in 2019. Prior to Otago, he held positions at the University of Texas at Dallas from 2001 to 2012, rising from Cecil and Ida Green Assistant Professor to Associate Professor with tenure and Director of Research for the Center for Urban Economics. He was also a Visiting Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin (2005) and Visiting Foreign Scholar at Osaka University (2008, 2009).

Berg's research specializes in behavioral economics, entrepreneurial decision making, financial economics, medical and health decision making, experimental economics, psychology and economics, economic demography, urban economics, and entrepreneurial capital. He teaches microeconomics, financial economics, psychology and economics, business statistics, and econometrics. Since joining Otago, he has published 15 new scholarly works, with articles in Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Psychological Review, Social Choice and Welfare, and collaborations with the Max Planck Institute's Center for Adaptive Behavior and Cognition published by Oxford University Press. Key publications include 'Ecological Rationality: Intelligence in the World' (Todd and Gigerenzer, 2012), 'As-if Behavioral Economics: Neoclassical Economics in Disguise?' (Gigerenzer and Berg, 2010), 'Non-response Bias' (2005), 'Measuring the Effect of Sexual Orientation on Income: Evidence of Discrimination?' (Berg and Lien, 2002), and chapters such as 'Against Nudging' (2020) and 'Smart People's Rational Mistakes' (2017). He has received grants including the Australian Research Council Discovery Project for 'Pathologies of Moral Cognition' (AUD 156,000, 2014-2018), Fulbright Scholar award (2003), and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Invitation Fellowship (2016). Berg is Associate Editor for Review of Behavioral Economics and Global Economics and Management Review, and serves on editorial boards for Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics and Global Business and Economics Review. His work has appeared in Financial Times, Business Week, and Canada's National Post.