David Benjamin Huffman

Biography

David Huffman is the Ashley Family Professor in Behavioral Economics at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business. He serves as editor-in-chief of Frontiers in Behavioral Economics, co-editor at Experimental Economics, and associate editor at Management Science. He is an IZA Fellow, a CESifo network member, and an associate member of Nuffield College, Oxford. Previously, he was a distinguished professor at the University of Pittsburgh and an associate professor at the University of Oxford, where he also served as tutorial fellow at St. Catherine’s College. He earned his PhD in economics from UC Berkeley and a BA with high honors in economics from Oberlin College.

Huffman’s research lies at the intersection of behavioral economics, labor economics, and personnel economics. His work has been published in leading journals including the American Economic Review, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of the European Economic Association, Management Science, American Economic Journal: Microeconomics, and Journal of Labor Economics. He has partnered with firms across various industries to deliver business-relevant insights.

One strand of his research examines the determinants of human decision-making — particularly preferences regarding risk, time, and social interactions, as well as trust and motivated beliefs — documenting how these vary globally and across cultures. Another applies behavioral insights to questions such as how workers respond to incentives, how relational contracting operates across institutional environments, and mechanisms underlying gender differences in labor market outcomes. His recent work focuses on behavioral economics within firms, particularly how behavioral biases and bounded rationality influence strategic behavior, and the mechanisms that lead decision makers to maintain persistently biased beliefs even in data-rich environments. He employs diverse methodologies including field experiments, laboratory experiments, surveys, and econometric analysis of large datasets using machine learning and natural language processing.

Education

PhD University Of California, Berkeley, 2003
BA Oberlin College, 1996

Research

• Bartling, Björn; Fehr, Ernst; Huffman, David; Netzer, Nick. "The Complementarity Between Trust and Contract Enforcement"Economic Journal. (forthcoming).
• Abeler, Johannes; Huffman, David; Raymond, Collin. "Incentive Complexity, Bounded Rationality and Effort Provision"American Economic Review. 115.12 (2025): 4404-4437
• Huffman, David; Raymond, Collin; Shvets, Julia. "Persistent Overconfidence and Biased Memory: Evidence from Managers"American Economic Review. 112.10 (2022): 3141-3175
• Sunde, Uwe; Dohmen, Thomas; Enke, Benjamin; Falk, Armin; Huffman, David; Meyerheim, Gerrit. "Patience and Comparative Development"Review of Economic Studies. 89.5 (2022): 2806-2840
• Huffman, David; Bognanno, Michael. "High-Powered Performance Pay and Crowding Out of Nonmonetary Motives"Management Science. 64.10 (2018): 4669-4680
• Falk, Armin; Becker, Anke; Dohmen, Thomas; Enke, Benjamin; Huffman, David; Sunde, Uwe. "Global Evidence on Economic Preferences"Quarterly Journal of Economics. 133.4 (2018): 1645–1692
• Altmann, Steffen; Falk, Armin; Grunewald, Andreas; Huffman, David. "Contractual Incompleteness, Unemployment, and Labour Market Segmentation"Review of Economic Studies. 81.1 (2014): 30-56
• Goette, Lorenz; Huffman, David; Meier, Stephan; Sutter, Matthias. "Competition Between Organizational Groups: Its Impact on Altruistic and Antisocial Motivations"Management Science. 58.5 (2012): 948-960
• Dohmen, Thomas; Falk, Armin; Huffman, David; Sunde, Uwe. "The Intergenerational Transmission of Risk and Trust Attitudes"Review of Economic Studies. 79.2 (2012): 645-677
• Abeler, Johannes; Falk, Armin; Goette, Lorenz; Huffman, David. "Reference Points and Effort Provision"American Economic Review. 101.2 (2011): 470-492

Awards

• Excellence in Refereeing Award (2012) American Economic Review