John A. List

John A. List
Born	John August List (1968-09-25) September 25, 1968 (age 55) Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
Education	University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point (BA) University of Wyoming (PhD)
Spouse(s)	Dana L. Suskind (m. 2018)
Academic career
Institution	University of Chicago
Field	Economics
School or tradition	Behavioral economics Experimental economics
Doctoral advisor	Shelby Gerking
Influences	Vernon Smith[1] Gary Becker[1]
Information at IDEAS / RePEc

John August List (born September 25, 1968) is an American economist known for his work in establishing field experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis. Since 2016, he has served as the Kenneth C. Griffin Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago, where he was Chairman of the Department of Economics from 2012 to 2018.^[2] Since 2016, he has also served as Visiting Robert F. Hartsook Chair in Fundraising at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.^[3] In 2011, List was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2011, he was elected a Fellow of the Econometric Society.^[4][5]

List is noted for his pioneering contributions to field experimentation in economics, with Nobel laureate economist George Akerlof and noted law professor Cass Sunstein writing that "List has done more than anyone else to advance the methods and practice of field experiments."^[6] Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker quipped that "John List's work in field experiments is revolutionary."^[7]

As detailed in his popular science book, The Why Axis (co-authored with Uri Gneezy), List uses field experiments to offer new insights in various areas of economics research, such as education, private provision of public goods, discrimination, social preferences, prospect theory, environmental economics, marketplace effects on corporate and government policy decisions, gender and inclusion, corporate social responsibility and auctions. The book became an international best-seller and represented List's field experiments from the early 1990s until 2010.

List published a second popular book, The Voltage Effect, in February, 2022, that has become a runaway best seller, making the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, Porchlight, Washington Post, and LA Times best seller lists.^[7] The book is based on a collection of academic articles written by List on scaling. With a suite of coauthors, List has produced both theoretical and empirical insights concerning the "science of using science."^{[8][9][10][11]} In The Voltage Effect, List argues that scaling, at its roots, is an Anna Karenina problem, overturning the conventional wisdom that the problem is a "silver bullet" or "best shot" problem. This leads List to present a thesis that "Every scalable idea is the same, each unscalable idea is unscalable in its own way." List revealed his work at Colby College in 2021.

List received his bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, and his Ph.D. from the University of Wyoming in 1996. His first teaching position was at the University of Central Florida; he later moved to the University of Arizona and then to the University of Maryland, College Park (where he still holds an adjunct position), before moving to the University of Chicago. List also spends time at Tilburg University, where he is a distinguished visiting scholar, and at Resources for the Future, where he is a University Distinguished Scholar. From May 2002 to July 2003 he served on the Council of Economic Advisers as a senior economist. According to RePEc, List the top ranked economist worldwide of the 40,000 economists who graduated in the last 20 years, and as of August 2023, RePEc ranks him as the 5th most influential economist in the world.^[12]