Richard Zeckhauser

Richard Jay Zeckhauser (born 1940) is an American economist and the Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University.^[2]

Richard J. Zeckhauser
Zeckhauser in 2014
Born	1940 (age 84–85)
Nationality	American
Spouse	Sally H. Zeckhauser[1]
Academic background
Education	Harvard University (BA, PhD)
Influences	Thomas Schelling
Academic work
Discipline	Decision theory, game theory, behavioral economics
School or tradition	Decision theory, behavioral economics
Institutions	Harvard University
Doctoral students	Nat Keohane, Gernot Wagner
Website	Information at IDEAS / RePEc

Life

Zeckhauser holds a B.A., summa cum laude, and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. Early in his career, he was one of the "whiz kids" assembled by Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara to apply cutting-edge analysis to Cold War military strategy. He is married to Sally H. Zeckhauser.^[1]

He is the author or co-author of many books and over 300 peer-reviewed articles. His most significant works focus on risk management, decision sciences, investment, and policy-making under uncertainty. Zeckhauser introduced the term "ignorance" into decision-making under uncertainty, as in: there's "risk", "uncertainty", and outright "ignorance".^[3]

His most recent book, with Peter Schuck, is Targeting in Social Programs. The book examines how and why to deploy scarce public resources to solve public problems. While he holds no formal office, he has long been an informal leader at Harvard Kennedy School and at Harvard.^[4] He was also an affiliated expert at Analysis Group.^[5] In 1994, he was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.

Bridge career

Zeckhauser is a champion bridge player.^[6]

Wins

• North American Bridge Championships (2)
  • Blue Ribbon Pairs (1) 1966
  • Mixed Pairs (1) 2007

Runners-up

• North American Bridge Championships (2)
  • Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1968
  • Mixed Board-a-Match Teams (2) 2003, 2012

Significant works

• Summers, Lawrence, and Richard Zeckhauser. "Policymaking for posterity." Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 37.2–3 (2008): 115–140.
• Zeckhauser, Richard. "Investing in the Unknown and Unknowable." (2010): 77–117.
• Samuelson, William, and Richard Zeckhauser. "Status quo bias in decision making." Journal of risk and uncertainty 1, no. 1 (1988): 7–59.
• Zeckhauser, Richard (2006) "Investing in the Unknown and Unknowable", Capitalism and Society: Vol. 1 : Iss. 2, Article 5. doi:10.2202/1932-0213.1009
• Schuck, Peter H. & Zeckhauser, Richard J. Targeting in Social Programs: Avoiding Bad Bets, Removing Bad Apples, Brookings Institution Press, 2010, ISBN 978-0815704287
• Zeckhauser, Richard, Strategy and choice, MIT Press, 1991, ISBN 978-0262240338
• Zeckhauser, Richard, Keeney, Ralph L., Sebenius, James K. Wise choices: decisions, games, and negotiations, Harvard Business Press, 1996, ISBN 978-0875846774
• Zeckhauser, Richard (2008). "Insurance". In David R. Henderson (ed.). Concise Encyclopedia of Economics (2nd ed.). Indianapolis: Library of Economics and Liberty. pp. 281–284. ISBN 978-0865976658. OCLC 23779426.

Trivia

Zeckhauser is connected to the so-called Yhprum's law, the opposite of Murphy's law, saying: "Sometimes systems that should not work, work nevertheless."^[7]