Guido Imbens

Guido Imbens is Applied Econometrics Professor and Professor of Economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business and a 2021 Nobel Laureate in Economic Sciences. Born in the Netherlands, he has made fundamental contributions to causal inference methodology in economics and statistics. With Joshua Angrist, he developed the local average treatment effect (LATE) concept, clarifying what instrumental variables estimators identify in the presence of non-compliance — a major conceptual contribution adopted across economics, epidemiology, and statistics. Imbens has also developed methods for regression discontinuity design, propensity score estimation, and more recently has worked on integrating machine learning methods with causal inference — making his work foundational to the growing field of causal machine learning. His research connects rigorous econometric methodology with applications in health economics, labor markets, and program evaluation. Imbens is also known as the husband of fellow Nobel laureate Susan Athey (economics and technology).