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Anya Samek

Associate Professor of Economics and Strategy

Before joining the Rady School, Samek was an Associate Professor (Research) of Economics at the University of Southern California. She also spent a year as a visiting professor at the University of Chicago Department of Economics.

Samek is the recipient of the 2020 Vernon L. Smith Ascending Scholar Prize. She is a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research, an Affiliate of the FAIR Centre at the Norwegian School of Economics and an affiliate of CESR at the University of Southern California.

Samek has published over 50 articles in peer reviewed journals and received numerous federal and foundation grants, including from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Templeton Foundation, and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation.

Samek earned a Ph.D. in Economics from Purdue University and completed post-doctoral training at the University of Chicago.

Do Financial Incentives Aimed at Decreasing Interhousehold Inequality Increase Intrahousehold Inequality?, with Amanda Chuan and John List, Journal of Public Economics, 2021, Vol 196.

How Experiments with Children Inform Economics, with John List and Ragan Petrie, forthcoming, Journal of Economic Literature.

Dynamic Inconsistency in Food Choice: Experimental Evidence from Two Food Deserts, with Sally Sadoff and Charles Sprenger,  Review of Economic Studies, 2020, Vol 87, No 4, pp 1954-1988.

The Effect of Early Education on Social Preferences, with Alexander Cappelen, John List and Bertil Tungodden,  Journal of Political Economy, 2020, Vol 128, No 7, pp 2739-2758.

Behavioral Impediments to Valuing Annuities: Evidence on the Effects of Complexity and Choice Bracketing, with Jeffrey R. Brown, Arie Kapteyn, Erzo F.P. Luttmer and Olivia S. Mitchell,  Review of Economics and Statistics, 2019.

Gender Differences in Job Entry Decisions: A University-Wide Field Experiment. Forthcoming,  Management Science, 2019, Vol 65, No 7, pp 2947-3448.

Incentives and Unintended Consequences: Spillover Effects in Food Choice, with Manuela Angelucci, Silvia Prina and Heather Royer,  American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, 2019, Vol 11, No 4, pp 66-95.

Toward an Understanding of the Development of Time Preferences: Evidence from Field Experiments, with Jim Andreoni, Michael Kuhn, John List, Kevin Sokal and Charles Sprenger,  Journal of Public Economics, 2019, Vol 177.

The Effect of Recipient Contribution Requirements on Support for Social Programs, with Sally Sadoff,  Journal of Public Economics, 2019, Vol 169, pp 1-16.

Do People Anticipate Loss Aversion?, with Alex Imas and Sally Sadoff,  Management Science, 2016, Vol 63:5, 1271-1284.

The Behavioralist as Nutritionist: Leveraging Behavioral Economics to Improve Child Food Choice and Consumption, with John List,  Journal of Health Economics, 2015, Vol 39, pp 133-146.

Do Thank-You Calls Increase Charitable Giving? Expert Forecasts and Field Experimental Evidence, with Chuck Longfield, forthcoming, American Economic Journal - Applied Economics.

Applied Microeconomics
Behavioral Economics
Experimental Economics
Household Economics