Uma R. Karmarkar

Uma R. Karmarkar combines methods from consumer psychology, behavioral economics and neuroscience to develop theory-driven frameworks about how people make decisions that build from brain to behavior.

She is an associate professor at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy (GPS) and holds a joint appointment with the Rady School of Management. She is a member of the executive board of the Society for Neuroeconomics, and its incoming president for 2024-2025. At GPS, she teaches courses including Marketplace Behavior and Survey Methods, as well as Marketing.

Karmarkar’s research broadly looks at how people use information in the world around them to estimate value and make everyday choices. In one stream of her work, she investigates how individuals use the limited information available in uncertain situations to make choices, like financial investments. In a second stream, she examines how the timing and context-dependent framing of information influences decision-making in marketplace settings. Prior to joining UC San Diego, Karmarkar was a visiting professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business and an assistant professor in marketing at Harvard Business School.

For more information, please visit Uma R. Karmarkar’s personal site.

Education and CV

Ph.D., Consumer Behavior, Stanford University, 2011
Ph.D., Neuroscience, UC Los Angeles, 2004
B.A., Symbolic Systems, Stanford University, 1998
CV

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