Updated Fall 2025
Personal: jobubabin@gmail.com; Work: jobu.babin@uni.edu Citizenship: United States of America
Assistant Professor of Analytics (AI focus), Dept. of Management, Wilson College of Business, University of Northern Iowa, 2025-
Senior Professional Lecturer of Analytics, DePaul University, 2024-25
Associate Professor of Economics and Analytics (tenured), Western Illinois University, 2023-2024
Assistant Professor of Economics, Western Illinois University, 2017-23
Adjunct Professor, Christian Brothers University, 2016- 2017
Doctoral Teaching Fellow, University of Memphis, 2015-2017
Other roles:
Visiting scholar, University of Chicago 2024-
Lead, Behavioral Economics and Organization Research Group (BEORG), 2021-
Adjunct Graduate Faculty, University of Memphis, 2018-
Managerial Decision-making Analytics, Language AI/NLP, Behavioral Economics, Experimental Design, Applied Microeconomics
Doctor of Philosophy, Business Economics (high distinction), University of Memphis, 2017
Dissertation: "Choice in Consideration of the Other: an Experimental Approach
M.S., Analytics (highest distinction), University of Iowa, 2024
Graduate Certificate, Cognitive Science, FedEx Center for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, 2016
M.A., Economics, University of Memphis, 2015
B.B.A., Business Economics (w/Honors and thesis), University of Memphis, 2013 (Summa)
Wilson Scholar, University of Northern Iowa, 2025-27
Cecil P. McDonough Endowed Professorship, Western Illinois University, 2022-24
Provost's Award of Mini-sabbatical, Western Illinois University, 2021
Dean's Award, Excellence in Teaching with Technology, CBT, Western Illinois University, 2019
Russell Sage Foundation Small Grant for Behavioral Economics, $3500, 2017
Ph.D. Student Teaching Award, 1st Place, Fogelman College of Business and Economics, The University of Memphis, 2017
ADA Compliance Grant, $3400, Fogelman College of Business and Economics, The University of Memphis, 2016-17
Barbara K. Tuckman Memorial Fellowship, The University of Memphis, 2015-16
First Place, Graduate Student Research Forum, The University of Memphis, 2015
Departmental Summer Research Grant, 2014-16
Departmental Assistantship, Department of Economics, The University of Memphis, 2013-2017
Dean’s Award, Most Outstanding Student, Fogelman College of Business and Economics, The University of Memphis, 2013
Member: American Economic Association, American Statistical Association, American Psychological Association, IEEE, Economic Science Association, International Association for Research in Economic Psychology (IAREP), INFORMS, Behavioral Economics and Organization Research Group (BEORG), Missouri Valley Economics Association, Midwest Economic Association
Member: Phi Kappa Phi, Beta Gamma Sigma, and Omicron Delta Epsilon National Honor Societies
Current Research Interests: Communication/text chat analysis and prosocial behavior; decision-maker interaction with AI; social norms and stereotypes in decision-making; attractiveness biases; treatment effect visualization
The UChicago School in Experimental Economics and visiting scholar (under John List), University of Chicago, 2024-25.
Participant, Design of Laboratory Experiments (under Catherine Eckel and Rick Wilson), summer research program, University of Michigan, 2015.
Babin, JJ, Chauhan, H. "Revisiting Erat and Gneezy’s White Lies Paradigm" (2024). Journal of Economic Psychology. Vol. 102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2024.102704.
Babin, JJ, Chauhan, H., and Kistler, S. (2024). "When Pretty Hurts: Beauty Premia and Penalties in eSports Contracts." Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization. Vol. 217, pp.726-741.
Babin, JJ, and Hussey, AJ (2023). "Gender Penalties and Solidarity -- Teaching Evaluation Differentials in and out of STEM." Economics Letters. Vol. 226.
Babin, JJ, Chauhan, HS (2023). "Show No Quarter: Combating Plausible Lies with Ex Ante Honesty Oaths" Journal of the Economic Science Association. 9, pp. 66-76.
Babin, JJ, Chauhan, HS (2023). "Initiating Free-flow Communication in Trust Games." Frontiers in Behavioral Economics. Vol. 2.
Babin, JJ, Foray, MP, and Hussey, AJ (2024). "Gender-based Disparities in Loneliness under Shelter in Place Orders." Applied Economics Letters. Vol. 226.
Babin, JJ, Chauhan, HS, and Liu, F. (2022). "You Can’t Hide Your Lying Eyes: Honesty Oaths and Misrepresentation." Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics. Vol. 98.
Babin, JJ, Foray, MP, and Hussey, AJ (2021). "Stay at Home Orders, Loneliness, and Collaborative Behavior." Economics and Human Biology, Vol. 43(1).
Guarin, G and Babin JJ. (2021). "Collaboration and Gender Focality in Stag Hunt Bargaining" Games, Vol. 12(2), 39.
Babin, JJ, Feld TN, Harriger-Lin, JL, and Mitchell, K. (2021). “The Best of Both Worlds? A Controlled Comparison of Hybrid and Online Economics Student Outcomes.” Journal of Education for Business. 97:1, 43-53.
Babin, JJ, Harriger-Lin, J., and Melkumian, A. (2021). Does Economic Inequality Impact Fan Arrests in NFL Stadia? Journal of Economic Insight, Vol. 47(1), pp. 21-51.
Babin JJ, Ghimire S, and Samarasinghe, M. (2020). "How has the Introduction of the Euro Impacted the Trade Performance of the Eurozone? Evidence from Disaggregated Exports and Imports Data" Academy of Economics and Finance Journal, Vol. 11, pp 1-10.
Babin JJ. (2020). "Linguistic Signaling, Emojis, and Skin Tone in Trust Games." PLoS ONE 15(6).
Babin, JJ. (2019). "Detecting Group Gender Stereotypes: Opinion-Mining vs. Incentivized Coordination." Journal of Economic Insight, Vol. 45 (1), pp. 21-42.
"Does the Network Centrality of Sentiment Influence Markets? A Machine Learning Approach." (w/ Haritima Chauhan, under review, Journal of Behavioral Finance).
"Bravado and Beguile: When the Beautiful Bet Boldly" (attractiveness and risk preferences, under review).
"Chatbot or Humanaut? How the Source of Advice Impacts Prosociality" (w/ Haritima Chauhan, R&R, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics).
"Text Analysis of Subjects' Perceptions and Modeling Behavior in One-shot Trust Games" (w/ Haritima Chauhan and J. Braxton Gately).
“Courage and Connection: Loneliness and Prosociality Across Veterans and Non-veterans” (w/ Haritima Chauhan, Anna Klis, and Manda Tiwari).
"Sibling Kinship, Norms, and Prosociality" (w/ Haritima Chauhan and Manda Tiwari, under review).
"Lying, Norms, and Machiavellianism" (w/ Haritima Chauhan).
Former editor, Journal of Contemporary Business Issues, 2022-24; Special Editor, Frontiers in Behavioral Economics, 2023-24; Assistant Editor, Journal of Economic Insight 2020-
Referee service: Management Science, Games and Economics Behavior; Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization; Labour Economics; Economics and Human Biology; Psychology Bulletin; Law & Social Inquiry; Journal of Neuroscience, Psychology, and Economics; Review of Behavioral Economics; Economics of Innovation and New Technology; Journal of Economic Insight; PLoS One; Sustainability; Frontiers in Psychology; Sage Psychology; Applied Science; Games.
Business Insider article (2025) "How the tiny tattoo became a big status symbol" on behavioral conspicuous consumption.
Times of Higher Education article (2021) "Attractive female academics rated as better teachers" highlighting "Beauty Premiums Among Academics." Economics of Education Review, Vol. 78(3).
BBC Radio Scotland Interview, Oct. 25, 2021, highlighting "Beauty Premiums Among Academics."
"Text as Data in Behavioral Economics," Univ. of Potsdam/Berlin School of Economics, 2025
ISU-NISS Conference Statistics and AI, 2025
INFORMS Chicago, 2024
Federal Reserve Bank of New York (BEEMA7), 2023
Economic Science Association North American Meetings, 2024, 2023, 2022, 2020, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015
UPenn Norms and Behavioral Change, 2022
Johns Hopkins Univ. - London School of Economics Conference on Behavioral Economics & Insights on Covid-19, 2021
Midwest Economics Association Conference, 2024, 2023, 2021, 2020, 2019
Southern Economic Association Meetings, 2019, 2018, 2017
Missouri Valley Economics Association Conference, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017
Illinois Economic Association, DePaul University, 2023, 2022, 2021
University of Chicago (Booth), The University of Iowa, Berlin School of Economics, Northern Illinois University, St. Lawrence University, The University of Houston, Mississippi State University, The University of Memphis, DePaul University
Applied: Business Analytics (undergraduate, MBA); Metrics and Analytics II (grad); Economics for Managers (MBA); Sports Analytics (Honors); Introduction to Econometrics (Graduate); Behavioral Economics (Graduate)
Theory: Price Theory (Graduate); Game Theory and Economic Behavior (Graduate, Honors College); Intermediate Microeconomics; Principles of Microeconomics; Principles of Macroeconomics
Graduate Advisor and CoChair, MS-Quantitative Economics program, 2022-2024
Master's thesis chair for Janvi Patel (analytics), 2024; Steven Kistler (economics), 2023; Pawonee Khadka (economics), 2021 (placement: Univ of Alabama Ph.D.); Geraldine Guarin (economics), 2020 (placement: Univ of Houston Ph.D.)
Master's thesis committee for Gabriela Galindos Rubio (economics), 2025; Jeff Valbrun (economics), 2022; Joshua De La Breure (analytics), 2021; Schylur Bucher (economics), 2021; Mohammed Aldawsari (economics), 2018
Student association seminar talks, WIU, 2020-24: "Using AI to Learn Text Analytics, "Cluster Analysis and Beauty Premium," "Misbehaving with Statistics," "Text Analytics and Amazon Reviews," "Introduction to Supervised and Unsupervised Learning Models," "Sports Analytics: A Primer."
Dissertation committee member for Dr. Dariya Ainekova, Univ. of Memphis Economics, 2018-19
Adjunct Graduate Faculty, The University of Memphis, 2018 - 22
Podium judge, Undergraduate Research Forum, WIU, 2019
Supervised 22 Honors student contract projects, 2016-21
CITR Best Practices in Online Teaching Course, 2018
Judge and Moderator, National Conference for Undergraduate Research, 2017
ADA and Accessibility Coordinator, Fogelman College of Business and Economics, 2016-17
Dr. Tara Feld, Dean, College of Business and Technology, 101 Stipes, Western Illinois University, TN-Feld@wiu.edu
Dr. Weiguo (Patrick) Fan, Henry B. Tippie Excellence Chair Professor in Analytics, The University of Iowa, S262 Pappajohn Business Building, weiguo-fan@uiowa.edu
Dr. Haritima Chauhan, School of Accounting, Finance, Economics, and Decision Sciences, 430L Stipes, Western Illinois University, hs-chauhan@wiu.edu
Dr. Andrew Hussey, Department of Economics, 423 FAB, The University of Memphis, ajhussey@memphis.edu
Dr. William T. Smith, Chair, Department of Economics, 400 FAB, The University of Memphis, wtsmith@memphis.edu
Dr. J. Braxton Gately, Dept. of Economics, Pittsburg State University, jb-gately@wiu.edu
Dr. Manda Tiwari, Dept. of Economics, Troy University, tiwarim@troy.edu
University of Northern Iowa: MBA Committee, 2025- ; AI-curriculum Advisory Subcommittee, 2025- ;
DePaul University: University International Committee, 2024; “Future of Business” Curriculum Committee, 2024; Scholarship Committee, 2024-25; Economics Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, 2024.
Western Illinois University: Council on Admission, Graduation, and Academic Standards (CAGAS), 2022-2024; Analytics Subcommittee, College of Business and Technology, 2019 - 2024; (chair); Graduate Council, 2022-24; Student Judicial and Conduct Board, 2019 - present; CBT Search Committees: Associate Dean, 2021; Dean, 2022; Faculty Search Committees: Decision Sciences tenure track 2018 (co-chair); Finance non-tenure, 2021; Accounting tenure track (chair), 2021; Economics Micro tenure track (chair), 2022; Economics Micro tenure track (chair), 2023; Economics Macro tenure track (chair), 2023; ECON Graduate Curriculum Committee, 2018-24 (co-chair, 2023-24); Faculty Mentoring Program, 2022-24; CBT Academic Integrity Committee (chair) 2019-24; AACSB Assessment Committee, 2020-24; University Honors Council, 2018-21; President's Round Table, 2018-20; AFED Academic Integrity and Scholarship Committee, 2020 - present; Economics Curriculum and Assessment Committee (chair), 2018-23; Departmental Graduate Seminar Coordinator, 2018-21; Committee on Online Distance Education Standards, Best Practices, Program Delivery and Quality Assurance, 2017-23; Strategic Planning Committee, College of Business and Technology, 2017-2018.
Community: City of Macomb Small Business Association Grant Competition Judge, 2024; Illinois Institute of Rural Affairs speaker, Use Cases of Business Analytics, 2022-24; Judge, University of Iowa Data Case Study Competition, 2023; Macomb Community Development and Law Enforcement Walk-through, 2022; Explore Western, Discover Western faculty volunteer 2018-24; University of Memphis ADA Compliance Advisor for Online Classes, 2013-16.