Research Centers & Projects
Featured Research News
Meet the Social Sciences Faculty
- William D. Hacker Professor of Economics and Political Science, Emeritus
Charles R. Plott
Caltech’s continuing focus on the formalization, integration, and experimental testing of basic principles of economics and political science creates challenges, intellectual excitement, and an integrated body of science that continues to grow and find important applications that will span many decades."
- Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience; Allen V. C. Davis and Lenabelle Davis Leadership Chair, Caltech Brain Imaging Center; Director, Caltech Brain Imaging Center
Dean Mobbs
Caltech allows researchers to be risky. Risk is an important part of science. It's where discovery occurs."
- Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics; T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience Leadership Chair; Director, T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience
Colin F. Camerer
One of the hallmarks of Caltech's HSS division, besides scientific excellence, is that people here wander and end up working on things in very unusual combinations."
- Assistant Professor of Economics
Axel Niemeyer
I specialize in mechanism design, the science of economic rule-making. Economics is usually concerned with analyzing existing economic institutions. Mechanism design flips the direction of inquiry: how should institutions be designed to best attain a given set of social or economic goals?"
- Assistant Professor of Political Science
Gabriel Lopez-Moctezuma
Caltech pioneered the use of mathematical models to explain political behavior, including voting and bargaining. The research I do would not be possible without these early contributions."
- Professor of Economics
Luciano Pomatto
I am interested in how people think, or should think, in situations of uncertainty. This line of research tackles a basic problem: What are the consequences of accepting probability as a language for making predictions about the future?"
- Assistant Professor of Economics
Pawel Janas
I study how financial systems and public policy shape economic outcomes. At Caltech, collaboration among economists, historians, and data scientists helps uncover how institutions influence economic growth over time."
- Assistant Professor of Economics
Yi Xin
Data are powerful. Understanding human behavior with real-world data provides important insights into policy design aimed at improving consumer welfare and market efficiency."
- Professor of Political Science
Alexander V. Hirsch
There are other institutions that are wonderful at teaching and wonderful at research. But at Caltech, it seems to me that to be wonderful at teaching means that you teach the students what the frontier of research is—that teaching and research are not different things."
- Richard N. Merkin Professor of Mathematical Finance
Jakša Cvitanić
We create an environment in which interdisciplinary, original research involving the social sciences and quantitative fields can thrive. It boils down to two things, which are education and research. There are not many places like Caltech where students can learn from experts from so many different fields in a natural way."
