Steven D. Levitt

Director, Chicago Price Theory
William B. Ogden Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago

Steven Levitt studies a wide range of topics, including the economic aspects of crime, corruption, sports, and education. His recent research includes looking at the role of skill and luck in poker, as well as the use of perfectly rational and selfish models for human behavior.

Levitt joined the UChicago faculty in 1997.He was an associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics before becoming the editor of the Journal of Political Economy in 1999. He is also a faculty research fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research and the American Bar Foundation. Levitt is a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Levitt received the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the National Science Foundation in 2000. In 2004, he was awarded the John Bates Clark Medal, awarded to the most influential economist under the age of 40. He was named one of Time magazine's “100 People Who Shape Our World” in 2006.

Levitt is a co-author of the bestselling Freakonomics and its sequel SuperFreakonomics, which includes research on topics from terrorism to prostitution to global warming.

Levitt received his bachelor's degree from Harvard University in 1989 and his doctorate from MIT in 1994.
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