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Photo of John Beshears

Unit: Negotiation, Organizations & Markets

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(617) 496-6543

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Additional Information
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Outside Activities

Areas of Interest

  • behavioral finance
  • consumer finance
  • decision-making
  • economics
  • healthcare management

Additional Topics

  • negotiation
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John Beshears

Terrie F. and Bradley M. Bloom Associate Professor of Business Administration

John Beshears is the Terrie F. and Bradley M. Bloom Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit, teaching the second-year MBA course "Motivation & Incentives." He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Before joining HBS, he was an assistant professor of finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Professor Beshears’s primary research area is behavioral economics, the field that combines insights from psychology and economics to explore individual decision making and market outcomes. He focuses on understanding how the financial decisions of households and firms are influenced by the institutional environment in which choices are made. In recent work, he has studied participation in retirement savings plans, household investment decisions, and health-care choices.

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John Beshears is the Terrie F. and Bradley M. Bloom Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit, teaching the second-year MBA course "Motivation & Incentives." He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Before joining HBS, he was an assistant professor of finance at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Professor Beshears’s primary research area is behavioral economics, the field that combines insights from psychology and economics to explore individual decision making and market outcomes. He focuses on understanding how the financial decisions of households and firms are influenced by the institutional environment in which choices are made. In recent work, he has studied participation in retirement savings plans, household investment decisions, and health-care choices.

The National Institutes of Health, Social Security Administration, FINRA Investor Education Foundation, Russell Sage Foundation, TIAA Institute, and National Science Foundation have supported Professor Beshears’s research. His work has been published in journals including the Journal of Finance, Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Public Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America; it has also been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, BusinessWeek, and Time.

After earning his Ph.D. in business economics at HBS, Professor Beshears was a postdoctoral fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He received an AB in economics from Harvard University.

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John Beshears In the News

 
Kiplinger
To Roth 401(k) or not to Roth 401(k)?
19 Jul 2017
HBS Working Knowledge
Why Government 'Nudges' Motivate Good Citizen Behavior
12 Jun 2017
Wall Street Journal
Roth vs. Traditional 401(k): Study Finds a Clear Winner
08 Jun 2017
Harvard Business School
Behavioral ‘Nudges’ Offer a Cost-Effective Policy Tool
15 Mar 2017
Harvard Business School
What's Your Favorite Case to Teach?
13 Feb 2017
Wall Street Journal
People Trying to Save Prefer Accounts That Are Hard to Tap
07 Dec 2016
Harvard Business School
A Sense of Wonder with John Beshears
11 Sep 2016
Wall Street Journal
How to Get More Pleasure Out of Retirement Spending
26 Jul 2016
Time
The Science Behind Why You Don’t Save (And What To Do About It)
09 Feb 2016
Harvard Business School
How and Why Businesses Should Teach Retirement
01 Sep 2015
Washington Post
How your lack of self-control might actually boost your savings
 

In the News

Kiplinger
To Roth 401(k) or not to Roth 401(k)?
19 Jul 2017
HBS Working Knowledge
Why Government 'Nudges' Motivate Good Citizen Behavior
12 Jun 2017
Wall Street Journal
Roth vs. Traditional 401(k): Study Finds a Clear Winner
08 Jun 2017
Harvard Business School
Behavioral ‘Nudges’ Offer a Cost-Effective Policy Tool
15 Mar 2017
Harvard Business School
What's Your Favorite Case to Teach?

See more news for John Beshears »

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