Roland Benabou

Roland Bénabou is the Theodore A. Wells '29 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University, where he joined the faculty in 1999 with a joint appointment in the Department of Economics and the School of Public and International Affairs. He holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1986), along with Ingénieur degrees from École Polytechnique (1980) and École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées (1982). His career trajectory includes serving as Professor of Economics at New York University (1996-1999), Associate Professor at New York University (1994-1996) and MIT (1992-1994), Assistant Professor at MIT (1988-1992), and Chargé de Recherches at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in Paris (1986-1988). Bénabou has held distinguished visiting positions, including Invited Professor at the Collège de France (2017-2018), Sciences Po and Paris School of Economics (2021-2022), and Member of the Institute for Advanced Study (2002-2003).

Bénabou's research spans macroeconomic and microeconomic topics, including inflation and imperfect competition, speculation in financial markets, inequality and growth, social mobility, the political economy of redistribution, education, social interactions, the socioeconomic structure of cities, and behavioral economics—focusing on extrinsic incentives versus intrinsic motivation, prosocial behavior, and motivated beliefs such as overconfidence, wishful thinking, identity, groupthink, ideology, and religion. Prominent publications include "Incentives and Prosocial Behavior" (American Economic Review, 2006, with Jean Tirole), "Self-Confidence and Personal Motivation" (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2002, with Jean Tirole), "Belief in a Just World and Redistributive Politics" (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2006, with Jean Tirole), "Identity, Morals and Taboos: Beliefs as Assets" (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 2011, with Jean Tirole), "Unequal Societies: Income Distribution and the Social Contract" (American Economic Review, 2000), and "Forbidden Fruits: The Political Economy of Science, Religion, and Growth" (Review of Economic Studies, 2022, with Davide Ticchi and Andrea Vindigni). His contributions have earned him election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, corresponding membership in the French Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, Fellowship of the Econometric Society, Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize (2021). Bénabou served as Coeditor of the American Economic Review (2014-2020) and held editorial roles at the Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Public Economics, and others, influencing scholarship in Business & Economics.

Professional Email: rbenabou@princeton.edu