Richard Zeckhauser

Life Zeckhauser holds a B.A., summa cum laude, and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University. Early in his career, he was one of the "whiz kids" assembled by Defense Secretary Robert S. McNamara to apply cutting-edge analysis to Cold War military strategy. He is married to Sally H. Zeckhauser.

He is the author or co-author of many books and over 300 peer-reviewed articles. His most significant works focus on risk management, decision sciences, investment, and policy-making under uncertainty. Zeckhauser introduced the term "ignorance" into decision-making under uncertainty, as in: there's "risk", "uncertainty", and outright "ignorance".

His most recent book, with Peter Schuck, is Targeting in Social Programs. The book examines how and why to deploy scarce public resources to solve public problems. While he holds no formal office, he has long been an informal leader at Harvard Kennedy School and at Harvard. He was also an affiliated expert at Analysis Group. In 1994, he was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.

Bridge career Zeckhauser is a champion bridge player.

Wins North American Bridge Championships (2) Blue Ribbon Pairs (1) 1966 Mixed Pairs (1) 2007

Runners-up North American Bridge Championships (2) Men's Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1968 Mixed Board-a-Match Teams (2) 2003, 2012

Significant works Summers, Lawrence, and Richard Zeckhauser. "Policymaking for posterity." Journal of Risk and Uncertainty 37.2–3 (2008): 115–140. Zeckhauser, Richard. "Investing in the Unknown and Unknowable." (2010): 77–117. Samuelson, William, and Richard Zeckhauser. "Status quo bias in decision making." Journal of risk and uncertainty 1, no. 1 (1988): 7–59. Zeckhauser, Richard (2006) "Investing in the Unknown and Unknowable", Capitalism and Society: Vol. 1 : Iss. 2, Article 5. Schuck, Peter H. & Zeckhauser, Richard J. Targeting in Social Programs: Avoiding Bad Bets, Removing Bad Apples, Brookings Institution Press, 2010, Zeckhauser, Richard, Strategy and choice, MIT Press, 1991, Zeckhauser, Richard, Keeney, Ralph L., Sebenius, James K. Wise choices: decisions, games, and negotiations, Harvard Business Press, 1996,

Trivia Zeckhauser is connected to the so-called Yhprum's law, the opposite of Murphy's law, saying: "Sometimes systems that should not work, work nevertheless."