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Katherine L. Milkman
Assistant Professor

Katherine Milkman is an assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her research documents various ways in which individuals systematically deviate from making optimal choices, and she is particularly interested in understanding what factors lead people to undersave for retirement, exercise too little, eat too much junk food, and watch too many lowbrow films. Recently, she has also begun to study race and gender discrimination, focusing on how a decision's context can alter the manifestation of bias.

Katherine has published articles in economics, management, and psychology journals such as Management Science, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, and Perspectives on Psychological Science. Her work has been featured by The New York Times, The International Herald Tribune, BusinessWeek, The Economist, NPR, and Harvard Business Review. In 2011, Katherine was recognized as one of the top 40 business school professors under 40 by Poets and Quants.

Katherine received her undergraduate degree from Princeton University (summa cum laude) in Operations Research and Financial Engineering and her Ph.D. from Harvard University's joint program in Computer Science and Business.

Publications
Katherine L. Milkman, Modupe Akinola, Dolly Chugh (2012), Temporal Distance and Discrimination: An Audit Study of University Professors, Psychological Science
Jonah Berger, Katherine L. Milkman (2011), What Makes Online Content Viral?, Journal of Marketing Research
Kathleen McGinn, Katherine L. Milkman, Markus Noth (2011), Walking the Talk in Multiparty Bargaining: An Experimental Investigation, Journal of Economic Psychology
Katherine L. Milkman, John Beshears, James J. Choi, David Laibson, Brigitte C. Madrian (2011), Using Implementation Intentions Prompts to Enhance Influenza Vaccination Rates, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 108, 10415-10420
J. Beshears, Katherine L. Milkman (2011), Do Sell-Side Stock Analysts Exhibit Escalation of Commitment?, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Vol. 77, 304-17

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Current Research
Katherine L. Milkman, Modupe Akinola, Dolly Chugh 2011, Epicenters of Discrimination in Academia
Katherine L. Milkman, Maurice Schweitzer 2011, Will the Best Man Win? Social Comparisons, Envy and the Tension between Cooperation and Competition
J. Beshears, J.J. Choi, D. Laibson, B.C. Madrian, Katherine L. Milkman 2011, The Effect of Peer Information on Retirement Savings Decisions
Katherine L. Milkman 2011, Unsure What the Future Will Bring? You May Over-Indulge: Uncertainty Increases the Appeal of Wants over Shoulds
Bradley R. Staats, Katherine L. Milkman, Craig Fox 2011, The Team Scaling Fallacy: Underestimating The Declining Efficiency of Larger Teams

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Milkman L. Katherine
Katherine L. Milkman
 3730 Walnut Street
566 Jon M. Huntsman Hall
Philadelphia, PA19104
Phone: 215-573-9646
kmilkman@wharton.upenn.edu

Personal Website

Research Interests: Behavioral economics, behavioral decision making, experimental economics