C. Monica Capra is a professor in the Department of Economic Sciences at Claremont Graduate University. Her areas of expertise are experimental economics, behavioral economics, and neuroeconomics. Professor Capra is interested in decision processes. Her contributions in behavioral game theory include the explicit modeling of introspection with error and the study of the effects of mood on decisions. She is also interested in the role personality plays in shaping economic choices. Capra has made transdisciplinary studies an important component of her work, and has collaborated with data scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists. This collaboration has led to important contributions in behavioral economics. C. Monica Capra is a professor in the Department of Economic Sciences. Her areas of expertise are experimental economics, behavioral economics, and neuroeconomics. Professor Capra is interested in decision processes. Her contributions in behavioral game theory include the explicit modeling of introspection with error and the study of the effects of mood on decisions. She is also interested in the role personality plays in shaping economic choices. Capra has made transdisciplinary studies an important component of her work, and has collaborated with data scientists, neuroscientists, and psychologists. This collaboration has led to important contributions in behavioral economics.

Dr. Dasgupta’s research interests are in the positive, normative and strategic aspects of decision-making. He primarily uses economics experiments and game theory for his research. He has published in the Review of Economics and Statistics, the Journal of Public Economics, the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and other peer-reviewed journals. He has refereed for Review of Economics and Statistics, Journal of Public Economics, Experimental Economics, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization and many other peer reviewed journals as well as funding bodies like NSF.

His teaching interests are in Microeconomics Theory, and in particular, Game Theory, Industrial Organization and Experimental/Behavioral Economics.

He is affiliated with the Institute for the Study of Labour (IZA) as a Research Fellow, and with the Global Labor Organization (GLO ) as a Fellow. He is also affiliated with the Institute for Social and Economic Research (ISER), University of Essex, as a Research Associate, and with the Center for International Policy Studies (CIPS), Fordham University, as a  Senior Research Associate. He serves as an Associate Editor, for the journal Studies in Microeconomics, and as a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Behavioral Public Administration (JBPA).

James Konow’s research and teaching specialty is economics and ethics. His research includes experimental and theoretical analyses and is informed by economics, philosophy, and psychology. It has been published in economics journals including the American Economic Review, the Journal of Economic Literature, and the Journal of Public Economics, and in various interdisciplinary journals in philosophy, psychology, and sociology. 

Sarah McGrath received an M.A. in philosophy from Tufts University in 1997 and a Ph.D. in philosophy from M.I.T. in 2002. She joined the Princeton faculty in Fall 2007, after being an assistant professor at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, from 2002-2005, and at Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, from 2005-2007. Her primary areas of interest are metaphysics and ethics; recent publications include “Moral Disagreement”, forthcoming in Russ Schafer-Landau, ed., Oxford Studies in Metaethics; “Causation by Omission” (2005) in Philosophical Studies; and “Moral Knowledge by Perception” (2004) in Philosophical Perspectives.

Dr. Pate is a Professor of Economics and Associate Dean of Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts at Loyola Marymount University. Her areas of interest include general economics, industrial organization, experimental and behavioral economics, applied microeconomics, public economics, and economics of giving, altruism, and reciprocity. Working collaboratively with Richard Fox, Professor of Political Science and International Relations., Dr. Pate has conducted significant research on the gender gap in political ambition to help understand and address women’s under-representation in politics. Read their most recent article: (2022) Knowing the Competition: Gender Qualifications, and Willingness to Run in Elections, Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 76, Issue 2.

Laura Razzolini is Professor of Economics and Department Head at the University of Alabama. Her research specializes in public and behavioral economics. She conducts economic experiments in a laboratory setting to test predictions of the theoretical models. Her work on altruism, fundraising and cost sharing mechanisms, traffic congestions and terrorism has been funded by the National Science Foundation. Her research has been published in the Journal of Economic Theory, Journal of Public Economics, Economic Theory, Public Choice, and Experimental Economics. For 16 years she served as Editor in chief of the Southern Economic Journal. She currently serve as Vice President of the Southern Economic Association and on the Executive Committee of the Economic Science Association.

Connie Rosati received her Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Michigan and her J.D. from Harvard Law School. She joined the faculty of the philosophy department at the University of Texas at Austin. She has previously taught at the University of Arizona, Rutgers, Northwestern, the University of Michigan, the University of California, Davis, the University of Pennsylvania Law School, and the University of San Diego Law School. Her research interests lie principally in the foundations of ethics and in jurisprudential questions about constitutional interpretation and the objectivity of law.

David Sobel is best known for his extensive research on well-being, and more specifically the connection between what a person values and her well-being. Are options good for us simply because we favor them, or must the options have their own value, independently of our favoring them, if they are to benefit us? Could we make some entirely pointless option, such as counting blades of grass, good for us just by liking it? If we say no, how can we explain why what we favor in matters of mere taste, such as one type of soda rather than another, is better for us when there seems nothing about either option, independently of our attitudes, that merits preferring one to the other? Sobel’s current work explores such questions.

His From Valuing to Value was published by Oxford University Press in 2016. He was a founding co-editor of annual series Oxford Studies in Political Philosophy. He has held residential fellowships at Princeton’s Rockefeller Center for Human Values, All Souls College at the University of Oxford, The Australian National University (twice), The Centre for Ethics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs at The University of St. Andrews, The University of Konstanz, The University of Leiden, and the University of Cincinnati.

Bas Van der Vossen is a Professor in the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy and the Philosophy Department at Chapman University. His research centers on political philosophy, with a primary focus on political economy, global justice, and Lockean theories of property rights. He also writes on the ethics of political activism within the academy.

His books include Political Philosophy: The Basics (Routledge, 2024); In Defense of Openness: Why Global Freedom Is the Humane Solution to Global Poverty (Oxford University Press, 2018), co-authored with Jason Brennan; and Debating Humanitarian Intervention: Should We Try to Save Strangers? (Oxford University Press, 2017), co-authored with Fernando Tesón. He also serves as an Associate Editor of Social Philosophy and Policy.

At the Smith Institute, he integrates the study of philosophy, economics, and the humanities through innovative, interdisciplinary, seminar-style courses. His teaching emphasizes independent thinking, active student engagement, and collaborative research between students and faculty. He has recently taught several courses reflecting this approach (see sample syllabi here and here). He is also the founder and former director of Chapman University’s Law and the Liberal Arts program.