Guido Imbens is an economist who builds bridges, between data and understanding, between correlation and causation, between abstract mathematical theory and real-world application. In a world flooded with information, he has spent his career developing methods to extract meaningful answers to some of the most pressing questions in economics and social science: What happens if we raise the minimum wage? Does a new medical treatment actually improve health outcomes? How do we measure the effect of education on future earnings?
Born in the Netherlands, Imbens trained as an econometrician but became, in many ways, a statistician at heart. He has a precise, almost engineering-like approach to problems, which has served him well in his work on causal inference, the study of how to determine cause-and-effect relationships from data. Alongside Joshua Angrist, his longtime collaborator, Imbens developed methods for using natural experiments, situations where external forces create conditions similar to a randomized trial, to uncover causal relationships. Their work, foundational to modern empirical research, earned them the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.
When I photographed Imbens at his home near Stanford on February 20, 2025, I was struck by the world he had built around him. Books lined the shelves, more than just professional tomes on econometrics, but works of history, philosophy, and literature. The walls were filled with photographs, all his own, documenting the life of his family with the same dedication and care he applies to his research. Outside, among the quiet order of an academic’s world, was something unexpected: chickens. He raises them in his backyard, tending to them with the same quiet, methodical attention he gives to data and equations.
His wife, Susan Athey, a celebrated economist in her own right, was there as well. The two share not just a home but a lifetime of intellectual collaboration, an ongoing conversation about economics, technology, and policy. Though Imbens is deeply analytical, he is also warm and engaging, his penetrating eyes suggesting a mind always at work, always questioning. There is no arrogance in his brilliance, just a deep curiosity and a willingness to engage, to explain, to refine.
Though he is now well into an illustrious career, his work remains as relevant as ever. As machine learning and AI become dominant forces in research, Imbens is at the forefront of integrating these new tools with rigorous causal reasoning. His focus remains unchanged: ensuring that in our rush to analyze data, we do not lose sight of the deeper question, what causes what, and how can we be sure?
Even outside his formal research, Imbens has a scientist’s impulse to observe, to document. His photographs, like his econometric models, are about capturing relationships, not just moments in time, but the threads that connect them. His home, his research, his life’s work, all reflect the same principle: the search for clarity in a world of complexity.
