Barry J. Nalebuff (born 1958) is Milton Steinbach Professor of Economics and Management at Yale School of Management.
Nalebuff graduated in 1980 from MIT with degrees in economics and mathematics. He then earned his master's degree and doctorate in economics from Oxford University on a Rhodes Scholarship.
Prior to joining the faculty at Yale, Nalebuff was a member of the Junior Society of Fellows at Harvard University and worked as an Assistant Professor at Princeton University.
He co-founded Honest Tea and authored numerous articles and several books. He has a semi-regular column in Forbes with Ian Ayres called "Why Not?"
He is the co-author of the bestselling book Co-opetition, which demonstrates how to combine competition and cooperation in order to change the game of business for maximum benefit. An expert on Game Theory, he has written extensively on its application for managers and has applied its use in consulting for such companies as Allied Signal, American Express, Bell Atlantic, Citibank, McKinsey & Co., Procter & Gamble, and Warner Lambert.
Nalebuff is also co-author of Thinking Strategically: The Competitive Edge in Business, Politics, and Everyday Life.
His book Why Not? is a primer for fresh business thinking, problem solving with a purpose, and bringing the world a few steps closer to the way it should be. A recent review by the The New York Times said “Barry Nalebuff and Ian Ayres toss out so many ideas, from the oddball to the audacious, in their book Why Not? that it makes you dizzy. And makes you think, too.”