Handbook of the Economics of Identity

Rachel Kranton studies how institutions and the social setting affect economic outcomes. She develops theories of networks and has introduced identity into economic thinking. Her research contributes to many fields including microeconomics, economic development, and industrial organization. Rachel Kranton is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Econometric Society, a fellow of the Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory and was awarded a Chaire Blaise Pascal. She will serve as the Vice President of the American Economic Association (AEA) 2026-207 and previously served on the AEA Executive Committee, and other Editorial Boards of the American Economic Review and the Journal of Economic Literature. She was also a Managing Editor of the Economic Journal. She is launching, along with collaborators, a new research network, Economic Research on Identity, Norms, and Narratives (ERINN). Rachel Kranton earned her Ph.D. in Economics at the University California, Berkeley in 1993. She has held fellowships at the Russell Sage Foundation in New York and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. She joined Duke University’s faculty in 2007 and served as Dean of Social Sciences in Duke’s Trinity College of Arts & Sciences from 2018-2022.

George Akerlof is University Professor at Georgetown University. His research is based in economics, but it often draws from other disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, and sociology. In 2001 he was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. The Nobel Committee cited Akerlof’s 1970 paper, “The Market for ‘Lemons’,” which for the first time described the role of asymmetric information in causing market collapse. In 2009 Professor Akerlof published Animal Spirits, with Robert Shiller; and in 2010, Identity Economics, with Rachel Kranton, His most recent book, Phishing for Phools, is, again with Shiller. Prior to joining Georgetown, Professor Akerlof taught, with only brief interruption, at the University of California at Berkeley from 1966 to 2008. He was Cassell Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics from 1978 to 1980. He was Visiting Scholar at the IMF from 2010 to 2014. He has been senior economist at the U.S. President’s Council of Economic Advisers. He served as president, vice president and member of the executive committee of the American Economic Association. He has been a trustee of Economists for Peace and Security. He co-convened the Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being program of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.