Shlomo Benartzi

Shlomo Benartzi is a behavioral economist interested in combining the insights of psychology and economics to solve big societal problems. He is a professor and co-founder of the Behavioral Decision-Making Group at UCLA Anderson School of Management.

Along with Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago, Benartzi pioneered the Save More Tomorrow™ (SMarT) program, a behavioral prescription designed to help employees increase their savings rates gradually over time. SMarT increased employee savings rates from 3.5 percent to 13.6 percent. The SMarT program is now offered by more than half of the large retirement plans in the U.S. and a growing number of plans in Australia and the U.K. The program has also been incorporated into the Pension Protection Act of 2006, helping millions of Americans boost their retirement savings.