Guido Imbens

Guido Imbens
Imbens in 2025
Born
Guido Wilhelmus Imbens

(1963-09-03) 3 September 1963
Geldrop, Netherlands
Nationality
  • Dutch
  • American
SpouseSusan Athey
Academic background
Alma materErasmus University (BA)
University of Hull (MSc)
Brown University (MA, PhD)
ThesisTwo essays in econometrics (1991)
Doctoral advisorAnthony Lancaster
Academic work
DisciplineEconometrics
InstitutionsStanford University
Doctoral studentsRajeev Dehejia
Alfred Galichon
AwardsNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2021)
Website

Guido Wilhelmus Imbens (born 3 September 1963) is a Dutch-American economist whose research concerns econometrics and statistics. He holds the Applied Econometrics Professorship in Economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, where he has taught since 2012.

In 2021, Imbens was awarded half of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with Joshua Angrist "for their methodological contributions to the analysis of causal relationships." Their work focused on natural experiments, which can offer empirical data in contexts where controlled experimentation may be expensive, time-consuming, or unethical. In 1994 Imbens and Angrist introduced the local average treatment effect (LATE) framework, an influential mathematical methodology for reliably inferring causation from natural experiments that accounted for and defined the limitations of such inferences. Imbens' work with Angrist, together with the work of Alan Krueger and co-recipient of the prize David Card is credited with catalysing the "credibility revolution" in empirical microeconomics.