John A. List
Encyclopedia
- This page is about the economist John A. List, not the serial murderer John ListJohn ListJohn Emil List was an American murderer. On November 9, 1971, he murdered his wife, mother, and three children in Westfield, New Jersey, and then disappeared. He had planned everything so meticulously that nearly a month passed before anyone noticed that anything was amiss...
.
John August List (born September 25, 1968) is The Homer J. Livingston Professor in Economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
at the University of Chicago
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
. He received his B.A. from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
The University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point is a public university located in Stevens Point, Wisconsin...
, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
in 1996. List had his first teaching position at the University of Central Florida
University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida, commonly referred to as UCF, is a metropolitan public research university located in Orlando, Florida, United States...
, and he then moved to the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
and the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
, where he still holds an adjunct position, before moving to Chicago. List also spends time at Tilburg University, where he is a distinguished visiting scholar and Resources for the Future
Resources for the Future
Resources for the Future is a nonprofit organization that conducts independent research into environmental, energy, and natural resource issues, primarily via economics and other social sciences. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., RFF performs research around the world...
, where he is a University Distinguished Scholar. From May 2002 to July 2003 he served as Senior Economist, President’s Council of Economic Advisors for Environmental and Resource Economics, where he worked on multi-national market institutions to address climate change, the Clear Skies Act, the OMB benefit cost guidelines, and the softwood lumber trade dispute between the US and Canada.
Within academia, List is known particularly for his innovative use of field experiments in economics
Economics
Economics is the social science that analyzes the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services. The term economics comes from the Ancient Greek from + , hence "rules of the house"...
, a research approach that List links to Swedish Economist Peter Bohm.[1]
List uses field experiments to offer new insights in various areas of economics research, such as education, private provision of public goods, social preferences, prospect theory
Prospect theory
Prospect theory is a theory that describes decisions between alternatives that involve risk i.e. where the probabilities of outcomes are known. The model is descriptive: it tries to model real-life choices, rather than optimal decisions.-Model:...
, environmental economics
Environmental economics
Environmental economics is a subfield of economics concerned with environmental issues. Quoting from the National Bureau of Economic Research Environmental Economics program:...
, marketplace effects on corporate and government policy decisions, and multi-unit auctions. Some of his more recent field experimental work in the area of education was discussed in Bloomberg Magazine . In the article, Nobel Laureate Gary Becker
Gary Becker
Gary Stanley Becker is an American economist. He is a professor of economics, sociology at the University of Chicago and a professor at the Booth School of Business. He was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences in 1992, and received the United States' Presidential Medal of Freedom...
tabs List as a strong candidate for a future Nobel Prize for his work on field experiments. His work on charitable fundraising was highlighted in New York Times Magazine on March 9, 2008.,[2] where List is credited as being an early pioneer of field experiments. In a recent Crain's Chicago Business article, List is referred to as a "rock star" in the area of philanthropy.[3] Many of these seminal studies were produced while List was a faculty member at the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of Arizona.
List has received numerous rewards. In 2004, List received the 1st Place Competitive Paper Award for his field experiment titled “Informational Cascades: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Market Professionals.” The paper was picked as the top research study in 2004 within finance by the FMA, which considered hundreds of studies. List received the prestigious 2008 Arrow Senior Prize for his field experimental work in the area of testing economic theory from the BE Press. In July 2010, List was awarded the highest honor by the AAEA
Agricultural & Applied Economics Association
The Agricultural & Applied Economics Association is a professional association for those interested in the field of agricultural and applied economics. AAEA members work for academic departments, government agencies, NGOs, think tanks, and in the private sector, and focus on a combination of...
, the John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth Galbraith
John Kenneth "Ken" Galbraith , OC was a Canadian-American economist. He was a Keynesian and an institutionalist, a leading proponent of 20th-century American liberalism...
prize. The award was given for recognition of List's "breakthrough discoveries in economics and outstanding contributions to humanity through leadership, research, and service. In particular, List's pathbreaking work using field experiments in economics."
Marginal Revolution, a blog written by economist and author Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen
Tyler Cowen is an American economist, academic, and writer. He occupies the Holbert C. Harris Chair of economics as a professor at George Mason University and is co-author, with Alex Tabarrok, of the popular economics blog Marginal Revolution...
calls List "one of the most important young economists". Greg Mankiw also tabs List as a top mind on his blog. The University of Chicago economist and author of Freakonomics
Freakonomics
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything is a 2005 non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner. The book has been described as melding pop culture with economics, but has also been described as...
, Steven Levitt
Steven Levitt
Steven David "Steve" Levitt is an American economist known for his work in the field of crime, in particular on the link between legalized abortion and crime rates. Winner of the 2004 John Bates Clark Medal, he is currently the William B...
, has referred to List as the young economist most likely to win a Nobel Prize in Economics. It has also been heavily speculated that List was the Clark medal
John Bates Clark Medal
The John Bates Clark Medal is awarded by the American Economic Association to "that American economist under the age of forty who is adjudged to have made a significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge"...
runner-up in 2007. In 2011 List was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
.
Career
He attended Sun Prairie High SchoolSun Prairie High School
Sun Prairie High School is a comprehensive secondary school located in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. The school is administered by the Sun Prairie Area School District. In 2008-2009, there were 146 teachers and 1,802 students at Sun Prairie High School. SPHS is a WIAA Division 1 school...
, graduating in 1987. He went on to become an Academic All American in golf at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point
The University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point is a public university located in Stevens Point, Wisconsin...
in 1990 and 1991, while majoring in Economics, graduating in 1992. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming
University of Wyoming
The University of Wyoming is a land-grant university located in Laramie, Wyoming, situated on Wyoming's high Laramie Plains, at an elevation of 7,200 feet , between the Laramie and Snowy Range mountains. It is known as UW to people close to the university...
in 1996. He began his career at the University of Central Florida
University of Central Florida
The University of Central Florida, commonly referred to as UCF, is a metropolitan public research university located in Orlando, Florida, United States...
as an Assistant Professor in 1996. He became an Associate Professor in 2000 at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
where he worked with Vernon L. Smith
Vernon L. Smith
Vernon Lomax Smith is professor of economics at Chapman University's Argyros School of Business and Economics and School of Law in Orange, California, a research scholar at George Mason University Interdisciplinary Center for Economic Science, and a Fellow of the Mercatus Center, all in Arlington,...
on furthering his field experimental methods. In 2001 he was awarded a Full Professorship at the University of Maryland, College Park
University of Maryland, College Park
The University of Maryland, College Park is a top-ranked public research university located in the city of College Park in Prince George's County, Maryland, just outside Washington, D.C...
. He held that post until 2004, when he received an appointment as a Full Professor at the Economics Department of the University of Chicago. In January 2011, List was awarded an Endowed Professorship at the University of Chicago's Economics Department for his work in the area of field experiments.
Work
His work focuses on microeconomic issues, and includes over 150 academic publications. Among these articles are field experiments using several different markets to obtain data, including charitable fundraisingFundraising
Fundraising or fund raising is the process of soliciting and gathering voluntary contributions as money or other resources, by requesting donations from individuals, businesses, charitable foundations, or governmental agencies...
activities, the Chicago Board of Trade
Chicago Board of Trade
The Chicago Board of Trade , established in 1848, is the world's oldest futures and options exchange. More than 50 different options and futures contracts are traded by over 3,600 CBOT members through open outcry and eTrading. Volumes at the exchange in 2003 were a record breaking 454 million...
, Costa Rican CEOs, the new automobile market, sports memorabilia
Sports memorabilia
The term sports memorabilia usually refers to anything that can be directly connected to a sports event or personality. These items are generally gathered by the fans of the particular sport, athlete or team that the item signifies or by collectors who find value in the rarity time-value of these...
markets, coin markets, auto repair markets, open air markets located everywhere—from the US to Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, various venues on the internet, several auction settings, shopping malls, various labor markets, and grammar and high schools.
Behavioral Economics
List's research on behavioral economics has focused on testing theories like gift exchange, social preferencesSocial preferences
Social preferences are a type of preference studied in behavioral and experimental economics and social psychology, including interpersonal altruism, fairness, reciprocity, and inequity aversion.The term "social preferences" incorporates obstreperous Social preferences are a type of preference...
, and prospect theory
Prospect theory
Prospect theory is a theory that describes decisions between alternatives that involve risk i.e. where the probabilities of outcomes are known. The model is descriptive: it tries to model real-life choices, rather than optimal decisions.-Model:...
. Traditional tests of these theories relied on recruiting undergraduate students to participate in experiments for a small amount of money. List instead recruited subjects in actual marketplaces to participate in experiments, sometimes unbeknownst to even the subjects. List's field experiments have found that gift exchange is not as powerful a motivator of labor effort as earlier research found, that social preferences
Social preferences
Social preferences are a type of preference studied in behavioral and experimental economics and social psychology, including interpersonal altruism, fairness, reciprocity, and inequity aversion.The term "social preferences" incorporates obstreperous Social preferences are a type of preference...
are not as pronounced as prior research found, and that the divergence between Willingness to Pay and Willingness to Accept often called the endowment effect
Endowment effect
In behavioral economics, the endowment effect is a hypothesis that people value a good or service more once their property right to it has been established. In other words, people place a higher value on objects they own than objects that they do not...
, predicted by prospect theory
Prospect theory
Prospect theory is a theory that describes decisions between alternatives that involve risk i.e. where the probabilities of outcomes are known. The model is descriptive: it tries to model real-life choices, rather than optimal decisions.-Model:...
, disappears with market experience.
List's recent work in behavioral economics has found that framing can induce increased worker productivity., and has been picked up by several corporations around the world.
Environmental Economics
List has published research on the impact of environmental regulation on economic production and on endangered species. List's research has also focused on testing non-market valuation mechanisms in the field frequently used in contingent valuationContingent valuation
Contingent valuation is a survey-based economic technique for the valuation of non-market resources, such as environmental preservation or the impact of contamination...
and in testing different incentives to promote environmentally friendly technology adoption.
Charitable Giving
List has also brought social preferencesSocial preferences
Social preferences are a type of preference studied in behavioral and experimental economics and social psychology, including interpersonal altruism, fairness, reciprocity, and inequity aversion.The term "social preferences" incorporates obstreperous Social preferences are a type of preference...
and value of public goods to the marketplace by testing determinants of charitable giving. List has found that a number of the traditional techniques in the philanthropy world are not well understood. For example, the higher the announced seed money
Seed money
Seed money, sometimes known as seed funding, friends and family funding or angel funding , is a securities offering whereby one or more parties that have some connection to a new enterprise invest the funds necessary to start the business so that it has enough funds to sustain itself for a period...
the more people give. Also, matching grants
Matching funds
Matching funds, a term used to describe the requirement or condition that a generally minimal amount of money or services-in-kind originate from the beneficiaries of financial amounts, usually for a purpose of charitable or public good.-Charitable causes:...
increase giving, but it doesn't matter if the match is 1:1 or 3:1. List has also found that giving is easily influenced by incentives that discount the importance of altruism in motivating giving. For example, List has found that beauty and social pressure are important motivators for giving.
Some of his more recent field experimental work on charitable fundraising were highlighted in New York Times Magazine. In a recent Crain's Chicago Business article, List is referred to as a "rock star" in the area of philanthropy.
Education
List's recent research focuses on increasing educational achievement. In 2008 he worked with Chicago Heights, IL to design cash incentives for ninth graders and their parents to increase academic performance. In 2009 he won a $10 million grant from the Griffin FoundationKen Griffin
Kenneth W. "Ken" Griffin was an American organist.-Biography:Griffin was born in Columbia, Missouri. His biggest hit was "You Can't Be True, Dear" , which was first released as an instrumental, and later that year re-released with a vocal by Jerry Wayne dubbed in. Both versions became popular,...
to study the returns to pre-school education by founding a pre-school called The Griffin Early Childhood Center and to test the impact of performance pay for teachers in Chicago Heights, IL.
List's recent education research was recently discussed in Bloomberg.
Other research
List's other research has focused on the economics of discrimination finding that discrimination in marketplaces is rarely motivated by animus and the poor offers that statistical discrimination. He has also investigated gender differences in competition and wages, finding that men are more likely to apply for jobs that offer incentive pay than women. He has also researched the role of gender in competition in matrilineal and patriarchal societies, finding that women in matrilineal societies opt to compete at similar levels to men in patriarchal societies. List has also used experiments to test ideas in financeFinance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...
. He has tested the options model, information cascades, and the equity premium puzzle
Equity premium puzzle
The equity premium puzzle is a term coined in 1985 by economists Rajnish Mehra and Edward C. Prescott. It is based on the observation that in order to reconcile the much higher returns of stocks compared to government bonds in the United States, individuals must have implausibly high risk aversion...
with undergraduate students and professional traders.
Personal life
List currently resides with his wife and five children in Flossmoor, IL. He likes to read and coach his kids' baseball teams in his spare time. His wife, Jennifer List, has recently started a children's clothing line called Seven Smooches.Press
A collection of a few of the recent pieces written on List's field experiments can be found in the following articles.- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/magazine/09Psychology-t.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=karlan&st=nyt&oref=slogin
- http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/15/business/15scene.html or http://aida.econ.yale.edu/karlan/news/NYTimes.June15-2006.pdf
- http://economics.uchicago.edu/news_JohnList.shtml
- http://aida.econ.yale.edu/karlan/news/Philanthropy.june14-2006.pdf
- http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17312118/site/newsweek/page/3/
- http://www.nber.org/reporter/2008number4/list.html
- http://philanthropy.com/blogs/philanthropytoday/u-of-chicago-scholar-explores-how-people-give/18041
- http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/3138a3fc-b3a8-11de-ae8d-00144feab49a.html
Academic publications
List, John A., “Informed Consent in Social Science,” Science, October 21, 2008, 322(5886), p. 672.List, John A., “Homo experimentalis evolves,” Science, July 11, 2008, 321(5886), pp. 207–208.
Levitt, Steven D. and John A. List, “Homo economicus evolves,” Science, February 15, 2008, 319(5865), pp. 909–910.
Karlan, Dean and John A. List. “Does Price Matter in Charitable Giving? Evidence from a Large-Scale Natural Field Experiment,” American Economic Review, (2007), 97(5), pp. 1774–1793.
Harrison, Glenn W., John A. List, and Charles Towe, “Naturally Occurring Preferences and Exogenous Laboratory Experiments: A Case Study of Risk Aversion,” Econometrica, (2007), 75 (2): 433-458.
Alevy, Jon, Michael Haigh, and John A. List. “Information Cascades: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Financial Market Professionals,” Journal of Finance, (2007), 62 (1): 151-180.
List, John A. “On the Interpretation of Giving in Dictator Games,” Journal of Political Economy, (2007), 115(3): 482-494.
List, John A. and Daniel Sturm. “How Elections Matter: Theory and Evidence from Environmental Policy,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, (2006), November 121(4): 1249-1281.
Gneezy, Uri, and John A. List. “Putting Behavioral Economics to Work: Testing for Gift Exchange in Labor Markets Using Field Experiments,” Econometrica, (2006), September, 74(5): 1365-1384.
List, John A., “The Behavioralist Meets the Market: Measuring Social Preferences and Reputation Effects in Actual Transactions,” Journal of Political Economy, (2006), 114(1): 1-37.
Landry, Craig, Andreas Lange, John A. List, Michael K. Price, and Nicholas Rupp. "Toward an Understanding of the Economics of Charity: Evidence from a Field Experiment,” Quarterly Journal of Economics, (2006), 121 (2): 747-782.
Haigh, Michael and List, John A. “Do Professional Traders Exhibit Myopic Loss Aversion? An Experimental Analysis,” Journal of Finance, (2005), 60 (1): 523-534.
List, John A. and Michael Haigh. “A Simple Test of Expected Utility Theory Using Professional Traders,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (2005), 102(3): 945-948.
List, John A. "Testing Neoclassical Competitive Theory in Multi-Lateral Decentralized Markets," Journal of Political Economy (2004), 112(5): 1131-1156.
List, John A. Robert Berrens, Alok Bohara, and Joe Kerkvliet. "Examining the Role of Social Isolation on Stated Preferences," American Economic Review (2004), 94 (3): 741-752.
Harrison, Glenn and John A. List. "Field Experiments," Journal of Economic Literature (2004), XLII (December): 1013-1059.
List, John A. "Neoclassical Theory Versus Prospect Theory: Evidence from the Marketplace," Econometrica (2004), 72(2): 615-625.
List, John A. “The Nature and Extent of Discrimination in the Marketplace: Evidence from the Field,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (2004), 119(1): 49-89.
List, John A. “Does Market Experience Eliminate Market Anomalies?,” Quarterly Journal of Economics (2003), 118(1), 41-71.
Pacala, Steven, Erwin Bulte, John A. List, and Simon Levin, "False Alarm over Environmental False Alarms," Science (2003), 301(5637), 1187-1189.
List, John A. "Preference Reversals of a Different Kind: The More is Less Phenomenon," American Economic Review (2002), 92(5): 1636-1643.
List, John A. and Lucking-Reiley, David. “The Effects of Seed Money and Refunds on Charitable Giving: Experimental Evidence from a University Capital Campaign,” Journal of Political Economy (2002), 110(1): 215-233
List, John A. "Testing Neoclassical Competitive Market Theory in the Field," Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (2002), 99 (24): 15827-15830.
List, John A. “Do Explicit Warnings Eliminate the Hypothetical Bias in Elicitation Procedures? Evidence from Field Auctions for Sportscards,” American Economic Review (2001), 91(5): 1498-1507.
List, John A. and Lucking-Reiley, David. “Demand Reduction in a Multi-Unit Auction: Evidence from a Sportscard Field Experiment,” American Economic Review (2000), September, 90(4): 961-972.
List John A. and Jason F. Shogren, “Calibration of the difference between actual and hypothetical valuations in a field experiment.” Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, (1998), 37 (2): 193-205.
External links
- John List's Home Page
- Faculty Profile: John List at the University of Maryland, College Park
- Twelve Scholars Join Faculty at the University of ChicagoUniversity of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by the American Baptist Education Society with a donation from oil magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller and incorporated in 1890...
- Field Experiment Bibliography by John List at the University of Maryland, College Park
- New York Times article about John List's research into charitable giving.
- http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-23/chicago-economist-s-crazy-idea-for-education-wins-ken-griffin-s-backing.htmlBloombergBloombergBloomberg may refer to:* Michael Bloomberg , American businessman and founder of Bloomberg L.P.; politician and Mayor of New York City...
] article about John List's research in education.