# Johannes Haushofer
**Johannes Haushofer** is a development and behavioral economist who studies how poverty and economic interventions shape psychological well-being, known for large-scale randomized cash-transfer experiments in Kenya, for the 2014 Science paper "On the Psychology of Poverty" with [Ernst Fehr](https://www.edgepedia.org/ernst-fehr), and for his viral "CV of Failures." He has been Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Cornell University since 2025 and Professor of Economics (part-time) at [Stockholm University](https://www.edgepedia.org/stockholm-university) since 2023, after earlier appointments at Princeton and Harvard/MIT.[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf) • [2](https://spia.princeton.edu/news/failures-aside-haushofer-reaches-across-disciplines-tackle-poverty) Stockholm University lists him as a Professor in the Department of Economics.[3](https://www.su.se/english/profiles/j/jhaus)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Current positions | Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Cornell, since 2025; Professor of Economics (part-time), Stockholm University, since 2023; NBER Research Associate and BREAD Fellow since 2025[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf) |
| Training | Oxford BA (First Class, 2003); Harvard PhD in Neurobiology (2003–2008, advisors Nancy Kanwisher and Margaret Livingstone); Zurich PhD in Economics, summa cum laude (advisor Ernst Fehr); Harvard/MIT Prize Fellow under Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf) |
| Signature result | Kenya UCT experiment: household consumption rose from $158 PPP to $193 PPP per month, about 23%, nine months after transfers began[4](https://johanneshaushofer.com/publications/Haushofer_Shapiro_UCT_QJE_2016.pdf) |
| General-equilibrium result | Local transfer multiplier of 2.5 in a 653-village Kenyan experiment, with large spillovers on non-recipients and minimal price inflation[5](https://push.econometricsociety.org/publications/econometrica/2022/11/01/General-Equilibrium-Effects-of-Cash-Transfers-Experimental-Evidence-From-Kenya/file/ecta200500.pdf) |
| CV of Failures | Posted on Twitter April 23, 2016, inspired by Melanie Stefan's 2010 Nature article; covered by the BBC, Vox, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, and The Guardian[2](https://spia.princeton.edu/news/failures-aside-haushofer-reaches-across-disciplines-tackle-poverty) |
| Recent honor | Frisch Medal of the Econometric Society, announced April 2024, for the Econometrica 2022 cash-transfer paper[7](https://www.su.se/english/divisions/department-of-economics/news/articles/2024-04-29-johannes-haushofer-receives-the-frisch-medal-award) |
## Education and career
Haushofer's training spans three disciplines. He took a First Class BA in [Psychology](https://www.edgepedia.org/psychology), Physiology, and [Philosophy](https://www.edgepedia.org/philosophy) at Oxford (2000–2003), then a PhD in Neurobiology at Harvard (2003–2008) under [Nancy Kanwisher](https://www.edgepedia.org/nancy-kanwisher) and Margaret Livingstone, and then a second PhD, in Economics at the University of Zurich (summa cum laude), under Ernst Fehr.[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf) The neurobiology degree shows directly in his methods: several of his experiments measure cortisol, a stress hormone, alongside survey measures of well-being.[4](https://johanneshaushofer.com/publications/Haushofer_Shapiro_UCT_QJE_2016.pdf)
His economics career began as a Prize Fellow in [Economics](https://www.edgepedia.org/economics) at Harvard/MIT (2011–2014), where his advisors were [Esther Duflo](https://www.edgepedia.org/esther-duflo) and [Abhijit Banerjee](https://www.edgepedia.org/abhijit-banerjee).[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf) He was Assistant Professor of Psychology & Public Affairs at Princeton from 2014 to 2020, Goh Keng Swee Professor at the National University of Singapore in 2023–2024, and part-time Professor at Stockholm University from 2023 before moving to Cornell in 2025.[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf) RePEc records his affiliation as 70% with the economics department of Stockholms Universitet and 20% with the Institutet för Näringslivsforskning (IFN), under short-ID pha1127.[8](https://ideas.repec.org/f/pha1127.html)
He has also built research infrastructure. He founded the Busara Center for Behavioral Economics in Nairobi and was its Scientific Director from 2012 to 2024; the center grew to a core staff of 50 with offices in Kenya, the United States, Uganda, and Ethiopia.[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf) • [2](https://spia.princeton.edu/news/failures-aside-haushofer-reaches-across-disciplines-tackle-poverty) Since 2021 he has been Founder & CEO of Malengo Inc.[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf)
## Cash transfers and psychological well-being
**The 2016 QJE experiment.** With Jeremy Shapiro, Haushofer randomized unconditional cash transfers delivered by M-Pesa to poor Kenyan households between 2011 and 2013, varying transfer magnitude (US$404 versus US$1,525 PPP), recipient gender, and timing (lump-sum versus monthly) at village and household levels; the average transfer of $709 PPP equaled almost two years of per capita expenditure.[4](https://johanneshaushofer.com/publications/Haushofer_Shapiro_UCT_QJE_2016.pdf) Nine months after transfers began, monthly household consumption had risen from $158 PPP to $193 PPP, a roughly 23% increase, and nonland asset values rose by $302 PPP, 61% of the control-group mean.[4](https://johanneshaushofer.com/publications/Haushofer_Shapiro_UCT_QJE_2016.pdf) The psychological effects were large: happiness rose 0.16 standard deviations, life satisfaction 0.17, stress fell 0.26, and depression declined significantly, but there was no average effect on cortisol.[4](https://johanneshaushofer.com/publications/Haushofer_Shapiro_UCT_QJE_2016.pdf) Timing mattered: monthly transfers improved food security more, while lump-sum transfers were more often spent on durables, which the authors read as evidence of savings and credit constraints.[4](https://johanneshaushofer.com/publications/Haushofer_Shapiro_UCT_QJE_2016.pdf)
**General-equilibrium effects.** With Dennis Egger, Edward Miguel, Paul Niehaus, and Michael Walker, Haushofer scaled the design up: one-time transfers of about USD 1,000 nominal (USD 1,871 PPP, KES 87,000) to over 10,500 poor households across 653 randomized villages, a fiscal shock of over 15% of local GDP.[5](https://push.econometricsociety.org/publications/econometrica/2022/11/01/General-Equilibrium-Effects-of-Cash-Transfers-Experimental-Evidence-From-Kenya/file/ecta200500.pdf) Recipient expenditure rose USD PPP 294 (11.6%) over control, or USD PPP 339 (13.4%) counting spatial spillovers; assets rose USD PPP 183 and housing value USD PPP 477.[5](https://push.econometricsociety.org/publications/econometrica/2022/11/01/General-Equilibrium-Effects-of-Cash-Transfers-Experimental-Evidence-From-Kenya/file/ecta200500.pdf) The headline estimate is a local transfer multiplier of 2.5, driven by large positive spillovers on non-recipient households and firms with minimal price inflation, meaning each transferred dollar raised local economic activity by more than its face value.[5](https://push.econometricsociety.org/publications/econometrica/2022/11/01/General-Equilibrium-Effects-of-Cash-Transfers-Experimental-Evidence-From-Kenya/file/ecta200500.pdf) The paper won the Econometric Society's Frisch Medal, first awarded in 1978.[7](https://www.su.se/english/divisions/department-of-economics/news/articles/2024-04-29-johannes-haushofer-receives-the-frisch-medal-award)
**Insurance, stress and "peace of mind."** A 2020 Journal of Development Economics experiment with 789 informal workers in Nairobi compared free health insurance, an unconditional cash transfer of USD 338 PPP, and a control group. A year after the intervention, neither arm had significant effects on most economic outcomes.[9](https://haushofer.ne.su.se/publications/Haushofer_Chemin_Jang_Abraham_Insurance_2020.pdf) But insurance reduced self-reported stress by 0.29 SD and cortisol by 16% relative to control, while the equal-value cash transfer did neither; the authors attribute this to a "peace of mind" effect from merely having coverage.[9](https://haushofer.ne.su.se/publications/Haushofer_Chemin_Jang_Abraham_Insurance_2020.pdf) The cash transfer did reduce child sickness by 9 percentage points (control 23%) and any household hospitalization by 8 percentage points (control 30%), and raised savings by USD 285 (45%), while insurance recipients reduced savings by USD 162 (25%).[9](https://haushofer.ne.su.se/publications/Haushofer_Chemin_Jang_Abraham_Insurance_2020.pdf)
**The psychological poverty trap.** In a working paper re-analyzing the QJE experiment (503 treatment, 432 control households), Haushofer estimates elasticities of psychological well-being with respect to income between 0.16 and 1.26, several near or above one, meaning a 1% income gain bought roughly a 1% well-being gain for some measures.[10](https://haushofer.ne.su.se/publications/Haushofer_PsychologicalTrap_2019.pdf) The same analysis shows decreasing returns to transfer size: large transfers were 3.77 times the size of small ones but raised income by only 1.76 times as much (0.44 versus 0.25 SD).[10](https://haushofer.ne.su.se/publications/Haushofer_PsychologicalTrap_2019.pdf) This agenda extends to treatment: he has asked whether psychotherapy can be "an economic intervention rather than just a psychological one," and 2023 working papers with Mudida and Shapiro and with Romero and Esopo compare cash transfers and psychotherapy and synthesize transfer effects on mental health.[2](https://spia.princeton.edu/news/failures-aside-haushofer-reaches-across-disciplines-tackle-poverty) • [1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf)
## By the numbers
His most-cited works are "On the psychology of poverty" (Science 2014, with Fehr), the 2016 QJE cash-transfer paper (1,699), "Measuring and bounding experimenter demand" (AER 2018, 614), and the [Econometrica](https://www.edgepedia.org/econometrica) 2022 general-equilibrium paper (403).[6](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1rLQM3kAAAAJ&hl=en) Grant funding for the research program includes an NIH award UH2NR016378, "How Does Stress Affect Health Behaviors" (2015–2019, $2,087,936, PI), and NSF 1824409, "Long-Term Effects of Unconditional Cash Transfers to the Poor" (2018–2021, $310,590, with Miguel, Niehaus, and Walker).[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf)
## The CV of Failures
On April 23, 2016, Haushofer tweeted a "CV of Failures" listing the degree programs he did not get into, the positions he did not land, rejected papers and unfunded grants, the mirror image of a conventional CV.[2](https://spia.princeton.edu/news/failures-aside-haushofer-reaches-across-disciplines-tackle-poverty) The idea came from a 2010 Nature article by neuroscientist Melanie Stefan.[2](https://spia.princeton.edu/news/failures-aside-haushofer-reaches-across-disciplines-tackle-poverty) It went viral, drawing coverage from the BBC, Vox, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, and The Guardian and about 200 emails in response, resonating especially with students and young academics.[2](https://spia.princeton.edu/news/failures-aside-haushofer-reaches-across-disciplines-tackle-poverty) The document itself noted the irony Haushofer called the "meta-failure": in 2016 it received more attention than his entire body of academic work; his own reaction was "bewilderment and amusement over quite how big it became."[2](https://spia.princeton.edu/news/failures-aside-haushofer-reaches-across-disciplines-tackle-poverty)
## Recent developments
The Frisch Medal came in April 2024 for the Econometrica paper.[7](https://www.su.se/english/divisions/department-of-economics/news/articles/2024-04-29-johannes-haushofer-receives-the-frisch-medal-award) In 2025 he moved to Cornell as Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, became an NBER Research Associate and a BREAD Fellow, and co-authored "Brain Drain or Brain Gain? Effects of High-Skilled International Emigration on Origin Countries" (Science 388, with Catia Batista, Daniel Han, Gaurav Khanna, David McKenzie, Ahmed Mushfiq Mobarak, Caroline Theoharides, and Dean Yang).[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf) A 2025 [American Economic Review](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-economic-review) paper with Niehaus, Paramo, Miguel, and Walker, "Targeting Impact versus Deprivation" (AER 115(6), pp. 1936–74), uses machine-learned proxy means tests in an NGO cash-transfer program in Kenya and finds that targeting solely on deprivation is unattractive under standard social welfare criteria unless the planner's preferences are extremely redistributive.[11](https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Faer.20221650) NBER working papers from 2024 extend the program geographically: "The Effects of Mental Health Interventions on Labor Market Outcomes in Low- and Middle-Income Countries" (NBER 32423), "Welfare Effects of a Permanent Unconditional Cash Transfer Program: Evidence from Maricá, Brazil" (NBER 33089), and "Household Responses to Guaranteed Income: Experimental Evidence from Compton, California" (NBER 33209).[1](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf) • [8](https://ideas.repec.org/f/pha1127.html)
## References
1. [Johannes Haushofer CV (personal site PDF)](https://johanneshaushofer.com/Johannes_Haushofer_CV.pdf)
2. [Failures Aside, Haushofer Reaches Across Disciplines to Tackle Poverty, Princeton SPIA](https://spia.princeton.edu/news/failures-aside-haushofer-reaches-across-disciplines-tackle-poverty)
3. [Johannes Haushofer – Stockholm University profile](https://www.su.se/english/profiles/j/jhaus)
4. [Haushofer & Shapiro (2016). The Short-term Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers to the Poor: Experimental Evidence from Kenya. Quarterly Journal of Economics](https://johanneshaushofer.com/publications/Haushofer_Shapiro_UCT_QJE_2016.pdf)
5. [Egger, Haushofer, Miguel, Niehaus & Walker (2022). General Equilibrium Effects of Cash Transfers: Experimental Evidence From Kenya. Econometrica](https://push.econometricsociety.org/publications/econometrica/2022/11/01/General-Equilibrium-Effects-of-Cash-Transfers-Experimental-Evidence-From-Kenya/file/ecta200500.pdf)
6. [Johannes Haushofer – Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=1rLQM3kAAAAJ&hl=en)
7. [Johannes Haushofer receives the Frisch Medal Award, Stockholm University (April 2024)](https://www.su.se/english/divisions/department-of-economics/news/articles/2024-04-29-johannes-haushofer-receives-the-frisch-medal-award)
8. [Johannes Haushofer | IDEAS/RePEc](https://ideas.repec.org/f/pha1127.html)
9. [Haushofer, Chemin, Jang & Abraham (2020). Economic and psychological effects of health insurance and cash transfers: Evidence from a randomized experiment in Kenya. Journal of Development Economics](https://haushofer.ne.su.se/publications/Haushofer_Chemin_Jang_Abraham_Insurance_2020.pdf)
10. [Haushofer. Is there a Psychological Poverty Trap? (working paper)](https://haushofer.ne.su.se/publications/Haushofer_PsychologicalTrap_2019.pdf)
11. [Targeting Impact versus Deprivation, American Economic Review 115(6), 2025](https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257%2Faer.20221650)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › Social and behavioral scientists › Development and environmental economists › Development policy and political economy scholars*
*Initially written Oct 10, 2026 · Edited: Oct 11, 2026; Oct 15, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license