| Benjamin Golub | |
| Nationality: | United States of America |
| Institution: | Northwestern University |
| Field: | Microeconomics, economics of networks |
| Alma Mater: | California Institute of Technology Stanford University |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Matthew O. Jackson[1] Andrzej Skrzypacz Robert B. Wilson |
| Contributions: | Research on social learning, financial networks |
| Awards: | Calvó-Armengol International Prize, 2020[2] |
| Repec Prefix: | f |
| Repec Id: | pgo789 |
Benjamin Golub (also known as Ben Golub) is an American economist who is a professor of economics and computer science at Northwestern University. His research focuses on the economics of networks. He was named the winner of the 2020 biannual Calvó-Armengol International Prize, which recognizes a “top researcher in [e]conomics or social sciences younger than 40 years old for contributions to the theory and comprehension of the mechanisms of social interaction.”[3]
Golub received a Bachelor's Degree in Mathematics from the California Institute of Technology in 2007. He received his PhD in economics from the Stanford Graduate School of Business in 2012.[4] From 2013 to 2015, he was a Junior Fellow at Harvard Society of Fellows,[5] and then a faculty member at the Harvard University Department of Economics, as an Assistant Professor from 2015 to 2019, and then as an Associate Professor. He is now a Professor in the departments of Economics and Computer Science at Northwestern University, where he has been since 2021.[4] [6]
Golub received the Calvó-Armengol International Prize in a ceremony in Andorra in November 2021.[7] [8]
Golub's research focuses on social and economic networks. He has been recognized for his contributions to the study of social learning,[9] particularly the DeGroot model. Golub's studies highlight the importance of network structure for the quality of learning,[10] and how homophily in social networks causes polarization of opinions.[11] He has also done research on contagion of failure in financial networks.[12]