W. Bentley MacLeod is Senior Research Scientist (and visiting professor) at Yale University, the Sami Mnaymneh Professor Emeritus of Economics and Professor Emeritus of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University. He was previously Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Southern California and Visiting Professor of Economics at Princeton University (2003/2004.2022/2023), California Institute of Technology (2002) and most recently the Leon Levy Member at the Institute for Advanced Studies (2011-12). He holds a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia. He is a fellow of the Econometric Society and the Society of Labor Economists.

MacLeod's areas of research and teaching are contract theory with applications in the fields of Law and Economics, Industrial Organization, and Labor Economics. His work is mainly concerned with understanding incentive contracts in dynamic settings, and how optimal contracts are the consequence of a complex interplay between reputation effects, market competition and social norms.

He joined IZA as a Research Fellow in November 2003 and served as Program Director of IZA's Behavioral and Experimental Economics program from January 2004 until June 2007.