Saurabh Bhargava

Biography

Saurabh Bhargava is an Associate Professor of Economics at Carnegie Mellon University, an academic affiliate of the Jameel Poverty Action Lab at MIT, and the Founder and Co-Director of the BEDR Policy Lab. Bhargava's research area of Behavioral Economics broadly explores decision-making, and optimal policy design, in the contexts of health insurance, retirement savings, program take-up, unemployment, medical adherence, and employee reward programs. A secondary line of research involves data-driven investigations into the determinants of happiness and well-being.

Bhargava’s work has been published in journals such as JAMA, The Quarterly Journal of Economics, The American Economic Review, Psychological Science, and NEJM Catalyst and has received coverage from media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Vox, CNBC, Bloomberg, Barron's, BBC News, New York Magazine, NPR, and Politico. He has also published in the Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal. Prior to starting his academic career, he worked at Mckinsey & Co.