Iris Bohnet

Iris Bohnet (born 1966) is a Swiss behavioral economist, and the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government and the Academic Dean at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Her work focuses primarily on issues of gender, trust, and social preferences.^[1]

Iris Bohnet
Born	1966 (age 58–59)
Nationality	Swiss
Occupation	Professor
Spouse	Michael Zürcher
Children	2
Academic background
Alma mater	University of Zurich
Academic work
Discipline	Economist
Sub-discipline	Behavioral economics
Institutions	Harvard Kennedy School
Website	scholar.harvard.edu/iris_bohnet

Early life and education

A native of Lucerne, Switzerland,^[2] Bohnet studied at the chair of Bruno S. Frey^{[2][clarification needed]} and received her PhD in Economics from the University of Zurich in 1997, then spent a year as a research fellow at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley from 1997-1998.^[3] She joined the Harvard Kennedy School as an assistant professor in 1998 and was made full professor in 2006.^[3]

Career

Bohnet is the director of the Women and Public Policy Program,^[4][5] co-chair of the Behavioral Insights Group,^[6] and the faculty chair of the executive program, "Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century" for the World Economic Forum's Young Global Leaders at Harvard Kennedy School.^[7]

Bohnet has served as the Academic Dean of Harvard Kennedy School^[8] as well as on the boards or advisory boards of the Graduate Institute for International and Development Studies, Switzerland; the Vienna University for Business and Economics, Austria; and the University of Lucerne, Switzerland.

Bohnet is the author of What Works: Gender Equality by Design.^[9] The book, acclaimed by The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post, among others, offers evidence-based solutions to overcome gender bias in classrooms and boardrooms, in hiring and promotion, benefiting businesses, governments, and society. It was included in lists of 2016's top books by Forbes, The Financial Times, LinkedIn, and The Washington Post.^{[citation needed]}

In 2016, Bohnet has been a featured speaker at Google Book Talks, the LSE, the OECD, SXSW, UNESCO, UNWomen, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum, among others.^{[citation needed]}

Bohnet's work has been featured in media outlets around the world, including the Atlantic, the BBC, Bloomberg News, Boston Globe, The Economist, Financial Times, Forbes, Handelsblatt, Harvard Business Review, Huffington Post, NPR, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, New York Times, PBS, Tages-Anzeiger, Swiss Television, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, Wired and WirtschaftsWoche.^[3]

Her academic work has been published in many top-ranked peer-reviewed journals, including The American Economic Review, American Political Science Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and Management Science, among many others.^[3]

She was a member of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse from 2012 until the bank's collapse in 2023 and its takeover by UBS. She was also a member of the Compensation Committee of Credit Suisse.^[10]

Recent publications

• Bohnet, Iris (2016). What Works: Gender Equality by Design. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-08903-7.
• Bohnet, van Geen & Bazerman, 2016. When Performance Trumps Gender Bias, Joint Versus Separate Evaluation. Management Science 62 (5), 1225-1234.
• Bohnet, 2016. How to Take the Bias Out of Job Interviews. Harvard Business Review. April 18.

Personal life

Bohnet and her husband, Michael Zürcher (an attorney), have two children, the sons Dominik and Luca.^[2][11] She used to compete in synchronized swimming, loves scuba diving, and generally enjoys aquatic activities.^{[citation needed]}