Skip to main content
  • SUPPORT HSS
  • JOB OPPORTUNITIES
  • CONTACT US
Caltech Logo
Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences
  • About HSS
    • HSS Year in Review
    • Honors and Awards
    • Job Opportunities
    • Contact Us
  • People
    • Professorial Faculty
    • Emeritus Faculty
    • Lecturers and Other Faculty
    • Postdoctoral Instructors
    • Postdoctoral Scholars
    • Graduate Students
    • Visiting Faculty and Associates
    • Staff
  • Research
    • Humanities Research
    • Social Sciences Research
    • Postdoctoral Programs
  • Undergraduate Studies
  • Graduate Studies
    • Social Sciences PhD Program
    • Social and Decision Neuroscience PhD Program
    • HSS Graduate Courses
    • Job Market Candidates
    • Graduate Programs Alumni
    • HSS Course Policies Open HSS Course Policies Submenu
      • Avoiding Plagiarism
      • Use of Generative AI
  • News & Events
    • HSS Calendar
    • News
    • Seminars and Conferences
    • Honors and Awards
  • Diversity
Menu Main Menu
Close
  • About HSS Click here to open the "About HSS" Submenu
  • People Click here to open the "People" Submenu
  • Research Click here to open the "Research" Submenu
  • Undergraduate Studies
  • Graduate Studies Click here to open the "Graduate Studies" Submenu
  • News & Events Click here to open the "News & Events" Submenu
  • Diversity
SUPPORT HSS
JOB OPPORTUNITIES
CONTACT US
About HSS
Back
  • HSS Year in Review
  • Honors and Awards
  • Job Opportunities
  • Contact Us
People
Back
  • Professorial Faculty
  • Emeritus Faculty
  • Lecturers and Other Faculty
  • Postdoctoral Instructors
  • Postdoctoral Scholars
  • Graduate Students
  • Visiting Faculty and Associates
  • Staff
Research
Back
  • Humanities Research
  • Social Sciences Research
  • Postdoctoral Programs
Graduate Studies
Back
  • Social Sciences PhD Program
  • Social and Decision Neuroscience PhD Program
  • HSS Graduate Courses
  • Job Market Candidates
  • Graduate Programs Alumni
  • HSS Course Policies
    • Avoiding Plagiarism
    • Use of Generative AI
News & Events
Back
  • HSS Calendar
  • News
  • Seminars and Conferences
  • Honors and Awards
Charlie Sprenger headshot
Office: 301B Baxter
Mail Code: Mail Code 228-77
Phone: 626-395-8924
Email: [email protected]
Administrative Assistant:
Name: Letty Diaz
Email: [email protected]
Phone: 626-395-1255
link Curriculum Vitae
link Research Website
HSS Home  /  People  /  Charles Sprenger

Charles Sprenger

Professor of Economics; Executive Officer for the Social Sciences
B.A., Stanford University, 2002; M.Sc., University College London, 2005; Ph.D., University of California, San Diego, 2011. Professor, Caltech, 2020-; Executive Officer, 2022-.
  • Profile
  • Publications
  • Teaching

Profile

Charlie Sprenger is a behavioral and experimental economist. His research focus is intertemporal decision making and decision making under uncertainty. He designs experiments to test how people behave when faced with various decisions, ranging from food choices to the implementation of vaccination programs and more. His experiments have shown that the standard economic models of behavior are not consistent with how people act in real-life settings, and these findings suggest the need for new public policy strategies.

Sprenger received his bachelor's degree in economics from Stanford University in 2002 and a master's degree from University College London in 2005. He earned his PhD in economics from UC San Diego in 2011 and then served on the economics faculties at Stanford (2011–14) and UC San Diego (2015–20) before joining the Caltech faculty in 2020. He currently serves on the editorial board for the American Economic Review, and he is an associate editor for the Journal of the European Economic Association and Quantitative Economics. He received a Sloan Research Fellowship in 2016.

Research Summary
Behavioral Economics; Intertemporal Choice; Risky Choice
Selected Awards
  • Sloan Foundation Fellowship, 2016-2018
Caltech Affiliations
  • The Ronald and Maxine Linde Institute of Economic and Management Sciences
  • Center for Theoretical and Experimental Social Sciences (CTESS)
External Affiliations
  • Board of Editors, American Economic Review
  • Associate Editor, Journal of the European Economic Association
  • Associate Editor, Quantitative Economics

Featured News

Experimental Economics in Theory and Practice
July 23, 2023
A summer program brings graduate students from across the United States to learn and practice theory-driven experimental research in economics
Reducing Procrastination with Tailored Incentives
February 07, 2023
Charlie Sprenger and other researchers tackle procrastination by vaccine workers in Pakistan.
Read more news   >

Selected Publications

For a complete publications list, see feeds.library.caltech.edu
2023-24
Ec 108 – Foundations of Behavioral Economics
SS 201 abc – Analytical Foundations of Social Science
SS 212 abc – Experimental Economics
2022-23
Ec 108 – Foundations of Behavioral Economics
SS 212 abc – Experimental Economics
2021-22
Ec 108 – Foundations of Behavioral Economics
SS 212 abc – Experimental Economics
2020-21
Ec 136 – Behavioral Decision Theory
Caltech Torch
Caltech Logo
California Institute of Technology
map marker
1200 East California Boulevard
Pasadena, California 91125
Contact Us Claimed Copyright Infringement Privacy Notice Site Content Copyright © 2023 Log In