Ben Polak

Benjamin "Ben" Polak (born 22 December 1961) is a British professor of economics and management and former provost at Yale University. From 1999 to 2001 Polak was the Henry Kohn Associate Professor of Economics^[4][5] and is now the inaugural William C. Brainard Professor of Economics.^[6] In January 2013, he became the Provost of Yale University.^[7]

Ben Polak
Provost of Yale University
In office 2013–2020
Preceded by	Peter Salovey
Succeeded by	Scott Strobel
Personal details
Born	(1961-12-22) 22 December 1961 (age 63)
Education	Trinity College, Cambridge (BA) Northwestern University (MA) Harvard University (PhD)
Scientific career
Nationality	British
Children	3[1]
Awards	DeVane Medal (2005) for teaching[2]
Fields	decision theory, game theory and economic history
Institutions	New Economic School University of Melbourne Yale University
Thesis	Problems from the history of capital markets  (1992)
Doctoral advisor	Jeffrey G. Williamson[3]
Doctoral students	Marzena Rostek

Polak specialises in microeconomic theory, has published 19 peer-reviewed papers in leading journals, and is Associate editor of the Journal of Economic Theory.^{[citation needed]}

In 2021 it was reported that Polak was responsible for Yale's decision to terminate the Yale Boswell Editions project, founded in 1949.^[8]

Courses taught

In fall 2007, Polak participated in the Open Yale Courses initiative, recording the 24 lecture series and making all course materials freely available on the Internet.^[9] Polak describes the motivation for his participation in the scheme as delivering an Ivy League standard education to a wider audience, "It’s not the full Yale experience, unfortunately, but it’s something."^{[citation needed]}