Kota Saito Home

Kota Saito

Professor of Economics at Caltech

PhD., Northwestern University, 2011.
M.A., University of Tokyo, 2007.
B.A., Keio University, 2005.

The goal of my research is to study individual decision making. My main focus is in decision theory, developing mathematical models of decision making that account for some of the behavioral regularities documented in experimental economics and psychology.

I am currently working on the application of decision theory to empirical studies, especially discrete choice analysis. Click here to read my full profile.

News (August 01, 2026)

• "Random utility models with Unobservable Alternatives" (joint with Alec Sandroni and Haruki Kono) is published at American Economic Review. For the presentation of the paper: see the following link video.
• "A Repeated-Choice Foundation for Stochastic Choice" (joint with Jay Lu) is accepted by Theoretical Economics.
• "Approximating Choice Data by Discrete Choice Models" (joint with Haoge Chang and Yusuke Narita) is accepted by Management Science.
• My coauthors and I are finished a new paper "Random Utility with Aggregation" (joint with Yuexin Liao and Alec Sandroni).
• I am seeking a Research Assistant and have revised the details for the RA and SURF opportunities. Alec Sandroni collaborated with me through SURF for four years before joining MIT as a graduate student. Article about SURF project with Alec