Dave Holtz

David Holtz is an assistant professor in the Management of Organizations (MORS) and Entrepreneurship and Innovation groups at the Haas School of Business. He earned his PhD at the MIT Sloan School of Management, in the Information Technology (IT) group. He also holds an MA in Physics and Astronomy from Johns Hopkins University, and a BA in Physics from Princeton University.

Holtz studies the design of online marketplaces and platforms using large-scale online field experiments and novel digital trace data. His research agenda focuses on online trust and reputation system design, the business and societal impacts of personalized recommendations, and the design and analysis of field experiments in online marketplaces. His work has appeared in a number of journals and conferences, including The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and the ACM Conference on Economics and Computation, and has been covered by popular news outlets, such as MSNBC, The Washington Post, and the Boston Globe. Before returning to academia, Holtz spent time in the Bay Area working as a data scientist and product manager at a number of technology firms, including Airbnb (where he was one of the founding members of the company’s algorithmic pricing team) and TrialPay (acquired by Visa). In carrying out his research agenda, he continues to work closely with many leading firms in the tech sector, including Airbnb, Facebook, Spotify, Microsoft, and Etsy.

Expertise and Research Interests

• Online Marketplaces & Platforms
• Computational Social Science
• Field Experiements
• Causal Inference
• Data Science

Positions Held

At Haas since 2021

• July 2021 – present, Assistant Professor, Management of Organizations Group, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley
• July 2021 – present, Faculty Affiliate, Berkeley Institute for Data Science

Non-Academic Experience

• 2020, PhD Research Intern, Microsoft Research
• 2019, PhD Research Intern, Spotify Tech Research
• 2016 & 2017, PhD Research Intern, Facebook Core Data Science
• 2014 – 2015, Data Scientist, Airbnb
• 2013, Data Science Engineer, Yub (acquired by Coupons.com)
• 2012 – 2013, Product Manager / Data Scientist, TrialPay (acquired by Visa)

Selected Honors and Awards

• INFORMS ISS Nunamaker-Chen Dissertation Award 2021

• Best Dissertation Award, Workshop on Information Technologies and Systems “Essays on the Design of Online Marketplaces and Platforms” 2020

• Duwayne J. Peterson, Jr. Doctoral Fellowship, MIT Sloan School of Management 2015 – 2021

EDUCATION

• PhD, Information Technology, MIT Sloan School of Management
• SM, Management Research, MIT Sloan Sloan School of Management
• MA, Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University
• AB, Physics (and certificate in Theater and Dance), Princeton University