He works in the fields of experimental economics, neuroeconomics and the study of human trust and decision making.
McCabe spent his early career at the University of Arizona where he began collaborating with Vernon Smith, co-winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics (with Daniel Kahneman).
He did post-doctoral studies at Washington University in St. Louis with Douglass North.
[citation needed] McCabe is currently professor of Economics, Law, and Neuroscience, and director of the Center for the Study of Neuroeconomics at George Mason University.
He is one of the co-authors of a series of early papers on the ‘trust game.’[3] Research Papers in Economics placed him in the top five percent of authors by the average rank score metric in May 2016.