2022 Fellow of ABAI: Steven R. Hursh

Dr. Steven R. Hursh received his BA from Wake Forest University in 1968 and his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 1972. He is the president of the Institutes for Behavior Resources and adjunct professor of Behavioral Biology at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Hursh has over 40 years’ experience as a researcher and is author of over 80 articles, book chapters, and books. He is a former associate editor of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. His seminal article on economic concepts for the analysis of behavior is considered one of the most significant articles in the history of the journal. Dr. Hursh has been a key figure in the establishment of behavioral economics as a major conceptual area. His research papers have introduced into the behavioral vocabulary a number of “household terms” in behavioral psychology: open and closed economies, demand curves and demand elasticity, unit price, substitution and complementarity, Pmax, Omax, and recently essential value based on exponential demand that has broad generality across species and reinforcers. His extensions to drug abuse and the framing of drug abuse policy have had a major impact on the direction of research on substance use disorders.