Robert H. Frank
H.J. Louis Professor of Management and Professor of Economics Emeritus, Cornell University
First recorded August 26, 2020
Robert H. Frank is the H.J. Louis Professor of Management and Professor of Economics Emeritus at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management. His columns on economics has appeared in The New York Times for nearly two decades.
Renowned across the world for his research and perspective, he has written numerous books on the economy that have been translated into 24 different languages. His books have addressed a variety of subjects, including price and wage discrimination, public utility pricing, the measurement of unemployment spell lengths, and the distributional consequences of direct foreign investment. For the past several years, his research has focused on rivalry and cooperation in economic and social behavior.
The Winner Take-All Society, co-authored with Philip Cook, received a Critic’s Choice Award and was named a Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times. It was also included in Business Week’s list of the 10 best books of 1995. His other books include Choosing the Right Pond, Passions Within Reason, Microeconomics and Behavior, Principles of Economics (with Ben Bernanke), Luxury Fever, What Price the Moral High Ground?, Falling Behind, The Economic Naturalist, The Darwin Economy, Success and Luck, and Under the Influence.
He received the 2004 Leontief Prize for Advancing the Frontiers of Economic Thought; the Johnson School’s Stephen Russell Distinguished Teaching Award in 2004, 2010, 2012, and 2017; and the Apple Distinguished Teaching Award in 2005.
Robert earned his bachelor of science in mathematics from Georgia Tech, then taught math and science for two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in rural Nepal. He holds an master of arts in statistics and a Ph.D. in economics, both from the University of California at Berkeley.