Richard Jay Zeckhauser (born 1940) is an American economist and the Frank P. Ramsey Professor of Political Economy at Harvard Kennedy School at Harvard University.

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 is also a consultant with Analysis Group. In 1994, he was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.

Bridge career

Zeckhauser is a champion bridge player.

Wins

Runners-up

Significant works

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."