Thomas Palfrey

Thomas R. Palfrey III is the Flintridge Foundation Professor of Economics and Political Science Emeritus in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). He earned a B.A. in Political Science (magna cum laude) from the University of Michigan in 1975, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Michigan in 1976, and a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from Caltech in 1981. Palfrey's academic career commenced at Carnegie Mellon University's Graduate School of Industrial Administration, where he served as Assistant Professor from 1980 to 1983, Associate Professor from 1983 to 1985, and Professor from 1985 to 1986. He joined Caltech in 1986 as Professor of Economics and Political Science, was named Flintridge Foundation Professor in 2002-2005 and 2006-2023, and became Emeritus Professor in 2024. Additionally, he held the position of Professor of Politics and Economics at Princeton University from 2004 to 2006. He served as Executive Officer of the Social Sciences at Caltech from 2001 to 2002, President of the Economic Science Association from 1995 to 1997, and Editor of Games and Economic Behavior from 2007 to 2015. Palfrey has undertaken visiting appointments at UCLA, New York University, Columbia University, the University of Pennsylvania, Texas A&M University, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and the University of Toulouse, including the Chaire d'Excellence Pierre de Fermat in 2005 and 2006.

Palfrey's research centers on game theory and its applications to economics, political science, and political economy, integrating theoretical, experimental, and empirical approaches to examine strategic behavior under incomplete information. His work addresses elections, committee decision-making, auctions, bargaining, public finance, and mechanism design. With Richard McKelvey, he developed quantal response equilibrium, a model accounting for bounded rationality that has profoundly influenced analyses of political, economic, and social interactions. Prominent publications include Quantal Response Equilibrium: A Statistical Theory of Games (Princeton University Press, 2016, with J. Goeree and C. Holt), Bayesian Implementation (Harwood Academic Publishers, 1993, with S. Srivastava), Experimental Foundations of Political Science (University of Michigan Press, 1993, with D. Kinder), and Laboratory Research in Political Economy (University of Michigan Press, 1991). He established Caltech's Social Science Experimental Laboratory (SSEL) in 1998 and directed it on three occasions (1998-2000, 2002-2004, 2009-2014), co-founded the California Social Science Experimental Laboratory (CASSEL) at UCLA, and founded the Princeton Laboratory for Experimental Social Science (PLESS). Among his honors are Fellowship in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008), the Econometric Society (1995), the Game Theory Society (2017), Economic Theory Fellow of the Society for the Advancement in Economic Theory (2011), and the William H. Riker Prize in Political Science (2021).

Professional Email: trp@hss.caltech.edu