Benjamin Golub
American economist
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Benjamin Golub (also known as Ben Golub) is an American economist who is a professor of economics and computer science at Northwestern University. His research focuses on the economics of networks. He was named the winner of the 2020 biannual Calvó-Armengol International Prize, which recognizes a “top researcher in [e]conomics or social sciences younger than 40 years old for contributions to the theory and comprehension of the mechanisms of social interaction.”[3]
Andrzej Skrzypacz[1]
Robert B. Wilson[1]
Benjamin Golub | |
|---|---|
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | California Institute of Technology Stanford University |
| Doctoral advisor | Matthew O. Jackson[1] Andrzej Skrzypacz[1] Robert B. Wilson[1] |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Microeconomics, economics of networks |
| Institutions | Northwestern University |
| Notable ideas | Research on social learning, financial networks |
| Awards | Calvó-Armengol International Prize, 2020[2] |
| Website | |
Career
Golub received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 2007. He received his PhD in economics from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2012.[4] From 2013 to 2015, he was a Junior Fellow at Harvard Society of Fellows,[5] and then a faculty member at the Harvard University Department of Economics, as an assistant professor from 2015 to 2019, and then as an associate professor. He is now a professor in the departments of Economics and Computer Science at Northwestern University, where he has been since 2021.[4][6]
Golub received the Calvó-Armengol International Prize in a ceremony in Andorra in November 2021.[7][8]
Research
Golub's research focuses on social and economic networks. He has been recognized for his contributions to the study of social learning,[2][9] particularly the DeGroot model. Golub's studies highlight the importance of network structure for the quality of learning,[10] and how homophily in social networks causes polarization of opinions.[11] He has also done research on contagion of failure in financial networks.[12]
