Joe Gladstone is an expert in behavioral data science and consumer finance. He is a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder, where he is the incoming Director of the Center for Research on Consumer Financial Decision-Making, one of the world’s top centers for studying how people manage their money and how to help them achieve more financial well-being.

Joe uses cutting-edge methods to analyze large-scale digital data from bank accounts and psychological surveys. He uncovers the hidden factors that shape consumer behavior and reveals insights that can improve financial outcomes for individuals and society.

Joe has received many honors for his work, including being named by Forbes magazine on their 30 Under 30 list in Finance, being selected as an MSI Young Scholar and publishing in prestigious academic journals such as the Journal of Consumer Research, Psychological Science and Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. He is also a frequent media commentator on topics related to consumer psychology and personal finance, appearing on BBC World News and other outlets.

Joe holds graduate degrees from the University of Cambridge and Oxford, and was previously the Fox Fellow at Yale University. He is passionate about collaborating with researchers, practitioners and policymakers who share his interest in understanding and improving financial behavior. He welcomes new connections and opportunities to work together.

Some questions Joe has been recently trying to answer include:

• Can someone’s personality be predicted from what they buy?

• What kinds of purchases improve people’s happiness and wellbeing?

• How do the characteristics of those living near us influence our spending?

• How do beliefs about the wealth and spending of others’ shape our own financial outcomes?

• Are couples who pool their finances more satisfied in their relationships?