Professor Oliver Hauser is a researcher and policy advisor with expertise in economics, public policy, and artificial intelligence (AI).

Professor Hauser is a Professor of Economics and the Deputy Director at the Institute for Data Science & Artificial Intelligence at the University of Exeter, Faculty Affiliate at the Harvard Kennedy School, Senior Advisor in the Evaluation Task Force in the UK Cabinet Office and H.M. Treasury, and a Fellow of the Royal Economic Society.

Welcome to my website!

I am a Professor of Economics at the University of Exeter, where I am also Deputy Director (and formerly interim Co-Director) of the Institute for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. In addition, I am a Faculty Affiliate at the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow leading the ambitious BIG IDEAs Initiative, and an inaugural Fellow of the Royal Economic Society. I am associated with MIT’s J-PAL Initiative and the University of Vienna’s Center for Experimental Economics.

In the UK government, I am a Senior Advisor in the Evaluation Task Force in the Cabinet Office and H.M. Treasury. I serve as a member on the Evaluation and Trial Advice Panel, the Government Skills College of Experts, and the Advisory Board on Digital, Data, Innovation & AI Skills. I advise government departments on the evaluation of policies and on the responsible and effective use of AI in the public sector.

I am also academic advisor to MoreThanNow, a behavioural science consultancy; academic associate of the Behavioural Insights Team, the original “nudge unit”; an expert member of the Slack AI Workforce Lab member; and an advisory board member of MeVitae. I have advised and consulted for governments in the UK, US, and Australia, and several Fortune 500, FTSE 100 and other listed companies.

Background and scientific achievements:

Previously, I held academic posts at Harvard Business School, Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Extension School. I have held prestigious fellowships at Harvard University, the Alan Turing Institute and the Behavioural Insights Team. I earned my Ph.D. in Biology from Harvard University and my B.Sc. in Physics from the University of Innsbruck. I am an elected Fellow of the Royal Economic Society.

My research has been published in top academic journals, including Science, Nature, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Management Science, PNAS, Nature Human Behaviour, Nature Communications, Science Advances, OBHDP, The Leadership Quarterly, and Behavioural Public Policy. I have received research funding of over £3.1m from major national and international grant bodies. If you want to find out more about my research, click here and for a list of my academic publications, click here.

I have also published popular articles for senior leaders and managers in the Harvard Business Review and Exeter Expertise. My research has also drawn attention from news outlets such as the Forbes, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, Vox, Slate, Yahoo, The Conversation, and VICE. For my managerial writing, click here.

I have been named one of the world’s best “40 Under 40” MBA professors (Poets & Quants) and previously one of the top “30 Under 30” thinkers (Pacific Standard). I also have received several awards for my teaching, research and impact work, including the UKRI Research and Innovation Impact Award, the Wharton People Analytics Research Prize, the Harvard University Richard J. Herrnstein Dissertation Prize, the Harvard John Parker Award, the Euregio Young Researcher Award, and several Certificates of Distinction in Teaching.

Interviews and public panel discussions

For a general conversation about my research and teaching philosophy, please see my interview in Poets & Quants. If you are interested to find out more about my interest in behavioural science and AI in an interview with Money on the Mind and climate justice in an interview with Springer Nature.

I have also taken part in several panel discussions, including one on AI and the future of behavioural science at the LSE and one on AI and creativity at The Wharton School.