Biography
Anat Bracha is an economist in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, as part of the Research Center for Behavioral Economics. In her research she incorporates psychological motives into standard economic models of decisionmaking under risk, and examines motives such as image motivation and status in prosocial behavior. Her work has been published in the American Economic Review and is forthcoming in the Journal of Public Economics. Bracha received her Ph.D. in economics from Yale, and prior to joining the Fed in 2009 she was an assistant professor at Tel Aviv University and a post-doc associate at MIT.

Education

Ph.D. (Economics), Yale University, 2005

M. Phil. (Economics), Yale University, 2002

 

M.A. (Economics), Yale University, 2001

 

M.A. (Economics, summa cum laude), Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 1997

Work experience

Federal Reserve Bank of Boston

Economist, 2009–

Tel Aviv University

Assistant Professor, 2006–2009

MIT, The Media Laboratory

Post-Doc Associate, 2005–2006

Publications

Refereed journal articles

“Doing Good or Doing Well? Image Motivation and Monetary Incentives in Behaving Prosocially," with D. Ariely and S. Meier. American Economic Review. 99(1): 544–555 (2009).

“Seeds to Succeed? Sequential Giving to Public Projects," with M. Menietti and L. Vesterlund. Journal of Public Economics. forthcoming.

Working papers and other unpublished papers

"Public and Private Values," with Dan Ariely and Jean-Paul L'Huillier. FRB Boston Working Papers Series, paper no. 10-5, (2010).

“Optimal Level of Agents' Private Information: An Uninformed Principal Perspective." Working paper.

“Affective Decision-Making: A Behavioral Theory of Choice," with D. Brown. Working paper.

“Charitable Giving: The Effect of Exogenous and Endogenous Status ," with O. Heffetz and L. Vesterlund. Working paper .

Presentations

“Psychology and Economics”

Insper, São Paolo, Brazil (August 2009).

 

 

“Doing Good or Doing Well?”

Insper, São Paolo, Brazil (August 2009); University of Pittsburgh, Economics (March 2009); The Federal Reserve Bank of Boston (January 2009); Ben-Gurion University, Economics (December 2008); Haifa University, Economics (May 2008); The Hebrew University, Economics (April 2008); Bar-Ilan University, Economics (December 2007); Tel Aviv University, Marketing (November 2007); North American Meeting of the Economic Science Association, Tucson, AZ (October 2007); Simon Fraser University, Economics, Vancouver, Canada (October 2007); University of British Columbia, Economics, Vancouver, Canada (October 2007); French Economic Association on Behavioral Economics and Experiments (May 2007); UCLA, Economics (May 2007); Affect, Motivation, and Decision Making International Conference, Dead Sea (December 2006); MIT Sloan School, Marketing (April 2006).

 

 

“Affective Decision Making”

Individual Decision-Making: A Behavioral Approach Conference (June 2009); Princeton University, Economics (April 2009); University of Pittsburgh, Economics (April 2009); Yale University, Neuroeconomics Seminar (July 2008); Brown University, Economics (Fall 2005); Southern Economic Association Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (November 2005); First Annual Whitebox Advisors Graduate Student Conference on Behavioral Approaches to Finance, Economics, and Marketing, Yale University (May 2005); Nineteenth Annual Congress of the European Economic Association, Madrid (August 2004); Thirteenth European Workshop on General Equilibrium Theory, Venice (June 2004).

 

 

“Pressure, Motivation, and Economic Performance”

SITE, Stanford University (August 2009).

 

 

“Doing Well or Doing More?”

AEA Annual Meetings, San Francisco (January 2009).

Fellowships and awards

Israel Science Foundation, 2009–2011 (with C. Fershtman).
Israel Foundations Trustees Grant, 2008–2010.
The Foerder Institute for Economic research Grant, 2007.
The Pinhas Sapir Center Grant, 2006–2007.
Whitebox Advisors Doctoral Fellowship, 2004–2005.
Cowlese Foundation Prize, Yale University, 2003.
The Georg Walter Leitner Grant for Political Economics, 2002.
John Perry Miller Fund Fellowship, 2002 (declined).
Yale Fellowship, Sept. 1999–2003.
Rector's Prize for the top student in economics (graduate level), Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 1008.
Dean's List of top 3 percent of students in economics (undergraduate level), Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 1994–1997.

Public service

Conference Organizer: Individual Decision-Making: A Behavioral Approach, Tel Aviv University, June 2009; The Meaning and Value of Labor, MIT, January 2005; Whitebox Advisors Graduate Students Conference in Behavioral Science, Yale University, May 2005.

Workshop Organizer: Behavioral/Experimental Economics Workshop, Tel Aviv University, 2008; Theory Workshop, Tel Aviv University, 2006–2008.

Director of Graduate Studies: Tel Aviv University, 2007.

Reviewer: American Economic Review, Games and Economic Behavior, National Science Foundation, Marketing Science, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.