Lynn Starmer Rogers

Lynn Starmer Rogers is an American economist and academic known for work in behavioral choice theory, decision making under uncertainty, and experimental economics. Rogers has held faculty positions at prominent research universities and contributed to debates in microeconomic theory, welfare analysis, and policy design. Rogers's career spans empirical experimentation, theoretical modeling, and interdisciplinary collaboration with psychologists and statisticians.

Early life and education

Rogers was born in the United States in the 1950s and pursued undergraduate studies at a leading liberal arts college before completing graduate work at Harvard University and doctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During graduate studies Rogers engaged with scholars associated with John von Neumann-inspired decision theory, the Cowles Commission tradition, and the emerging field of experimental economics associated with Vernon L. Smith and Daniel Kahneman. Rogers's mentors and advisers included faculty connected to Paul Samuelson, Kenneth Arrow, and Amartya Sen schools of thought, informing an interdisciplinary approach linking psychology and economics.

Academic career and positions

Rogers has held academic appointments at research institutions including state universities and private colleges, collaborating with departments of Economics, centers for Behavioral Science, and institutes for experimental methods influenced by Nobel Prize-winning programs. Rogers served as visiting scholar at international organizations and research centers affiliated with The Brookings Institution and the National Bureau of Economic Research. In faculty roles Rogers taught undergraduate courses connected to microeconomic theory and graduate seminars intersecting with scholars from University of Chicago, London School of Economics, and University of California, Berkeley.

Research and contributions

Rogers's research spans decision theory, revealed preference analysis, and the design of laboratory experiments inspired by Prospect Theory and stochastic choice models developed by scholars like Daniel Bernoulli (historical) and modern contributors such as Kenneth Arrow-influenced welfare models. Contributions include formal models of choice under risk, critiques of expected utility axioms linked to debates involving John Harsanyi and Leonid Hurwicz, and empirical tests refining parameters in models used by applied researchers at institutions like the Institute for Advanced Study. Rogers collaborated with experimentalists following methodologies advanced by Charles Plott and Ariel Rubinstein, and worked on applications relevant to public policy discussions in forums of The RAND Corporation and OECD research programs. Rogers's work addressed methodological issues in preference elicitation, linking to literature from Edward C. Prescott and Robert Lucas Jr. on microfoundations, and intersected with behavioral findings associated with Herbert Simon and Richard Thaler.

Publications and books

Rogers authored and coauthored peer-reviewed articles, edited volumes, and monographs distributed through university presses and journals including outlets frequented by contributors such as Journal of Political Economy, American Economic Review, and Econometrica. Notable chapters appear alongside works by Dale T. Mortensen, Oliver Hart, and Joseph Stiglitz in collections addressing decision processes and institutional design. Rogers also contributed to interdisciplinary volumes featuring collaborators from Princeton University, Columbia University, and Stanford University, and presented keynote lectures at conferences organized by European Economic Association and American Economic Association.

Awards and honors

Throughout a career spanning decades, Rogers received fellowships and honors from national academies and research foundations, including awards associated with National Science Foundation grants, fellowships tied to John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and recognition from learned societies in which scholars like Milton Friedman and Elinor Ostrom were active. Rogers's honorary invitations included named lectureships at institutions such as Yale University, Oxford University, and participation in advisory panels convened by World Bank and United Nations research divisions.

Category:American economists Category:Behavioral economists Category:Living people