Hunt Allcott is an expert in behavioral, digital, and environmental economics, as well as industrial organization and energy topics. An empirical applied microeconomist with wide-ranging expertise, Professor Allcott analyzes consumer behavior in the automobile, consumer goods, food and beverage, consumer finance, technology, and energy industries. He uses a variety of tools in his work, including both structural and reduced-form econometrics, as well as applied theory, surveys, and randomized field and online experiments.
In his research, Professor Allcott studies automotive issues, including the relationship between automobile prices, fuel economy, and gasoline prices, and how consumers’ perceptions of fuel economy impact their purchase decisions. His work in energy economics analyzes how consumer behavior responds to policy changes and incentives regarding energy usage.
Professor Allcott’s current work also includes topics related to digital platform competition policy, particularly network effects, web search, and digital advertising markets. He also studies the way information diffuses across social media and affects consumer perceptions. His work on digital behaviors has been widely covered in the mainstream media, including The Atlantic, Bloomberg, CNN, the Economist, FiveThirtyEight, Fortune, the New York Times, NPR, the Washington Post, and Wired.
Professor Allcott has published his research in peer-reviewed journals such as the American Economic Review, the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economic Studies, and Science. His paper on social norms and energy conservation won the Atkinson Prize for the best paper published in the Journal of Public Economics in the preceding three years. He is a member of the board of editors of the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
Professor Allcott codirects the Stanford Environmental and Energy Policy Analysis Center (SEEPAC), which conducts environmental and energy policy research. He is a research associate in the Environment and Energy Economics, Industrial Organization, and Public Economics programs at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). In addition, as an affiliate of ideas42, a Harvard-incubated research organization, Professor Allcott applies behavioral sciences research techniques to a variety of complex social challenges.
Before joining the Stanford faculty, Professor Allcott was a tenured associate professor of economics at New York University. He has also held the position of senior principal researcher at Microsoft Research. Previously, Professor Allcott served as a fellow in the MIT Energy Initiative. He has taught courses in behavioral economics, public economics, industrial organization, and environmental economics.
