John August List (born September 25, 1968) is an American economist known for his work in establishing field experiments as a tool in empirical economic analysis.

[2] Since 2016, he has also served as Visiting Robert F. Hartsook Chair in Fundraising at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University.

[4][5] In 2024, Omicron Delta Epsilon, the international honor society for economics, gave List the biennial John R. Commons Award.

"[7] Nobel laureate economist Gary Becker quipped that "John List's work in field experiments is revolutionary.

"[8] As detailed in his popular science book, The Why Axis (co-authored with Uri Gneezy), List uses field experiments to offer new insights in various areas of economics research, such as education, private provision of public goods, discrimination, social preferences, prospect theory, environmental economics, marketplace effects on corporate and government policy decisions, gender and inclusion, corporate social responsibility and auctions.

In January 2011, List was awarded an endowed professorship at the University of Chicago's Economics Department for his work in the area of field experiments.

NABE cited List's pioneering contributions of showing the power of field experiments to answer key business questions and resolve scaling problems within firms.

List received the 2008 Arrow Senior Prize for his field experimental work in the area of testing economic theory from the BE Press.

The award was given for recognition of List's "breakthrough discoveries in economics and outstanding contributions to humanity through leadership, research, and service.

In the past two decades, List has expanded his research agenda to explore theoretical and empirical aspects of scaling ideas and policies.

Traditional tests of these theories relied on recruiting undergraduate students to participate in experiments for a small amount of money.

[24] List's recent work in behavioral economics has found that framing can induce increased worker productivity,[25] and has been picked up by several corporations around the world.

[29] He also teaches in Kiel University Research Institute in summer 2017 where he developed ideas on non-market valuation using field experiments.

In an experiment through a solicitation mailed to 300,000 households in Alaska, List found that people are more likely to give because they want to feel good, rather than from pure altruism.

In 2008 he worked with Chicago Heights, IL to design cash incentives for ninth graders and their parents to increase academic performance.

[42] The center was started by List together with world-renowned scholars at the University of Chicago and Harvard University, was awarded a $10M grant from the Griffin Foundation to launch the Chicago Heights Early Childhood Center (CHECC), one of the most comprehensive longitudinal early childhood studies ever conducted.

List co-founded and co-directs the Thirty Million Words Center for Early Learning and Public Health along with Dana L.

[45] He has also investigated gender differences in competition and wages, finding that men are more likely to apply for jobs that offer incentive pay than women.

He has tested the options model,[48] information cascades,[49] and the equity premium puzzle[50] with undergraduate students and professional traders.