Anat Bracha is an economist in the research department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In her research she incorporates psychological motives into standard economic models of decisionmaking under risk, and examines motives such as image motivation and status in prosocial behavior. Her work has been published in the American Economic Review , the Journal of Public Economics, and Games and Economic Behavior . Bracha received her Ph.D. in economics from Yale, and prior to joining the Fed in 2009 she was an assistant professor at Tel Aviv University and a post-doc associate at MIT.
Ph.D. (Economics), Yale University, 2005
M. Phil. (Economics), Yale University, 2002
M.A. (Economics), Yale University, 2001
B.A. (Economics, summa cum laude), Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 1997
Refereed journal articles
“Doing Good or Doing Well? Image Motivation and Monetary Incentives in Behaving Prosocially," with D. Ariely and S. Meier. American Economic Review. 99(1): 544–555 (2009). Previously issued as FRB Boston Working Paper Series, paper no. 07-9, (2009).
“Seeds to Succeed? Sequential Giving to Public Projects," with M. Menietti and L. Vesterlund. Journal of Public Economics 95(5-6):416-427 (June 2011) . Previously issued as FRB Boston Working Paper Series, paper no. 09-21 (2009).
“Affective Decision-Making: A Theory of Optimism Bias," with D. Brown. Games and Economic Behavior. 75(1): 67-80 (May 2012). Previously issued as FRB Boston Working Papers Series, paper no. 10-16 (2010).
"Competitive Incentives: Working Harder or Working Smarter?" with Chaim Fershtman. Management Science, forthcoming.
"Shifting Confidence in Home Ownership: The Great Recession" with Julian Jamison. B.E. Journal of Macroeconomics, forthcoming.
Working papers and other unpublished papers
"Relative Pay and Labor Supply" with Uri Gneezy. FRB Boston Working Paper Series, paper no. 12-7 (2012).
"Shifting Confidence in Homeownership: The Great Recession" with Julian Jamison. FRB Boston Public Policy Discussion Paper Series, paper no. 12-4 (2012).
"Public and Private Values," with Dan Ariely and Jean-Paul L'Huillier. FRB Boston Working Papers Series, paper no. 10-5, (2010).
“Optimal Level of Agents' Private Information: An Uninformed Principal Perspective." Working paper.
“Charitable Giving: The Effect of Exogenous and Endogenous Status ," with O. Heffetz and L. Vesterlund. Working paper .
Israel Science Foundation, 2009–2011 (with C. Fershtman).
Israel Foundations Trustees Grant, 2008–2010.
The Foerder Institute for Economic research Grant, 2007.
The Pinhas Sapir Center Grant, 2006–2007.
Whitebox Advisors Doctoral Fellowship, 2004–2005.
Cowlese Foundation Prize, Yale University, 2003.
The Georg Walter Leitner Grant for Political Economics, 2002.
John Perry Miller Fund Fellowship, 2002 (declined).
Yale Fellowship, Sept. 1999–2003.
Rector's Prize for the top student in economics (graduate level), Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 1008.
Dean's List of top 3 percent of students in economics (undergraduate level), Bar-Ilan University, Israel, 1994–1997.
Conference Organizer: Individual Decision-Making: A Behavioral Approach, Tel Aviv University, June 2009; The Meaning and Value of Labor, MIT, January 2005; Whitebox Advisors Graduate Students Conference in Behavioral Science, Yale University, May 2005.
Workshop Organizer: Behavioral/Experimental Economics Workshop, Tel Aviv University, 2008; Theory Workshop, Tel Aviv University, 2006–2008.
Director of Graduate Studies: Tel Aviv University, 2007.
Reviewer: American Economic Review, Games and Economic Behavior, National Science Foundation, Marketing Science, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, Journal of Public Economic Theory, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization.