Robert D. Metcalfe
Visiting Associate Professor
Department of Economics
University of Southern California
Assistant Professor
Reidy Family Career Development Assistant Professorship
Markets, Public Policy, & Law
Questrom School of Business
Boston University
Faculty Research Fellow, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)
Affiliate, Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)
Affiliate, E2e Project, UC Berkeley
I am an applied microeconomist, where my research focuses on using field experimental methods to understand human behavior in consumer markets and within organizations. A running theme in my research is to understand such behavior and the measurement of welfare in the presence of market imperfections and externalities.
Many of my projects have led to testing economic theory in collaboration with industry and government partners, such as Virgin Atlantic Airlines, Uber, Lyft, Opower, Oracle Utilities, Southern California Gas, Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART), Office Depot, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Viasat, British Gas, British Telecom, San Antonio Water System (SAWS), the YMCA, Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement, the U.S. Social Security Administration, and the U.K. Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs.
Working Papers:
Measuring the Welfare Effects of Shame and Pride
Butera, L., Morrison, W., Metcalfe, R., Taubinsky, D.
Conditionally accepted at the American Economic Review
[Slides] [Click for Charity user interface] [Download QSF files for Prolific version]
Using Big Data to Estimate Consumer Surplus: The Case of Uber
Cohen, P., Hahn, R., Hall, J., Metcalfe, R., Levitt, S.
Revision requested, Journal of Political Economy
[Slides]
Larson, F., List, J., Metcalfe, R.
Reject and resubmit, Econometrica
[Slides]
The Value of Time in the United States: Estimates from Nationwide Natural Field Experiments
Goldszmidt, A., List, J., Metcalfe, R., Muir, I., Smith, K., Wang, J.
Reject and resubmit at the American Economic Review
Smart Meters: Do Their Prices Matter to Their Adoption and Do They Save Energy?
List, J., Metcalfe, R., Price, M.
Revise and resubmit at the Journal of Environmental Economics and Management
Burgess, S., Metcalfe, R., Sadoff, S.
Revise and resubmit at the Economics of Education Review
Fatalism, Beliefs, and Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Akesson, J., Ashworth-Hayes, S., Hahn, R., Metcalfe R., Rasooly, I. (submitted)
Do the Effects of Social Nudges Persist? Theory and Evidence from 38 Natural Field Experiments
Brandon, A., Ferraro, P., List, J., Metcalfe, R., Price, M., Rundhammer, F.
[Slides]
The Making of Homo Honoratus: From Omission to Commission
Hallsworth, M., List, J., Metcalfe, R., Vlaev, I.
Harnessing Policy Complementarities to Conserve Energy: Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment
List, J., Metcalfe, R., Price, M., Rundhammer, F. (submitted)
Nudging Timely Wage Reporting: Field Experimental Evidence from the U.S. SSI Program
Zhang, C.Y., Hemmeter, J., Kessler, J.B., Metcalfe, R., Weathers, R. (submitted)
How Can We Increase Tax Compliance? Evidence from Two Natural Field Experiments
Floyd, E., Hallsworth, M., List, J.A., Metcalfe, R., Vlaev, I. (submitted)
Measuring Welfare when Prices Differ from Marginal Cost
Hahn, R., Metcalfe, R., Tam, E. Coming soon.
Management and Productivity in the Retail Sector
Metcalfe, R., Sollaci, A., Syverson, C. Coming soon.
The Income Elasticity of Energy Demand.
Hahn, R., Metcalfe, R., Tam, E. Coming soon.
The Impact of Fake Reviews on Consumer Choice and Welfare
Akesson, J., Hahn, R., Metcalfe, R., Rasooly, I. Coming soon.
Attention and Information Frictions in Consumer Choice
Akesson, J., Hahn, R., Mahler, A., Metcalfe, R. Coming soon.
Smart Technologies, Dumb Humans: The Perils of Scaling Household Technologies
Brandon, A., Clapp, C., List, J., Metcalfe, R., Price, M. Coming soon.
Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications:
Efficiency and Equity Impacts of Energy Subsidies.
Hahn, R., Metcalfe, R. (forthcoming)
American Economic Review
Gosnell. G., List, J., Metcalfe, R. (2020)
Journal of Political Economy Lead article
[Harvard Business Review] [Ungated PDF] [Slides]
Brandon, A., List, J., Metcalfe, R., Price, M., Rundhammer, F. (2019)
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States
Quantifying the Intangible Impact of the Olympics Using Subjective Well-Being Data.
Dolan, P., Kavetsos, G., Krekel, C., Mavridis, D., Metcalfe, R., Senik, S., Szymanski, S., Ziebarth, N. (2019)
Journal of Public Economics
[Slides]
Metcalfe, R., Burgess, S., Proud, S. (2019)
Journal of Public Economics
The Behavioralist as Tax Collector: Using Natural Field Experiments to Enhance Tax Compliance.
Hallsworth, M., List, J., Metcalfe, R., Vlaev, I. (2017)
Journal of Public Economics
Bio:
Prior to joining Boston University, I was a Postdoctoral Research Scholar in Economics at the University of Chicago and a Research Fellow in Economics at the University of Oxford (Merton College). I have previously worked in the U.K. Government as an Economist, and had a short-term position as a Fellow at the Social and Behavioral Sciences Team at the Office of Science and Technology Policy, Office of the U.S. President. I completed my Ph.D. at Imperial College London, M.Sc. at the London School of Economics, and B.A. at the University of Wales, Swansea. I grew up in a neighborhood called Gendros, in Swansea, United Kingdom.
I am also co-founder of two start-ups, The Behavioralist and Signol.