Faculty Directory
Manel Baucells headshot
MB

Manuel Baucells

Associate Professor
Unit: Darden School of Business
Department: Darden Graduate School of Business
Office location and address
FOB 293B
20 Duffy Blvd
Charlottesville, Virginia 22903
Education
MS Mechanical Engineer, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
MBA, IESE Business School
PhD, the Anderson School at UCLA
Biography

Manel Baucells teaches Quantitative Analysis courses in Darden's MBA and Executive Education programs. Prior to joining Darden in 2015, Manel held positions at the Rand Corporation in California (senior economist), the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona (full professor), and IESE Business School (associate professor). He completed his Ph.D. on game theory, with applications to management, under the supervision of Lloyd Shapley (2012 Nobel Prize laureate in Economics).

Manel's research focuses on incorporating psychological realism into consumer behavior models by considering factors such as anticipation, reference point comparison, mental accounting, psychological distance, and satiation. He serves as department editor for the journalManagement Science and associate editor for Operations Research.

Manel has a broad international experience in business education. He has lectured MBA's and executives in North America, Europe, China, Russia, Latin America, and Africa. He has held visiting research positions at Duke University, UCLA, London Business School, MIT, and Erasmus University. While at IESE, he won the Excellence in Course Development award as well as the Excellence in research award, both given by the Alumni Association.

Manel and Rakesh Sarin (UCLA) have published the book Engineering Happiness(UC Press), that has received the 2014 best publication award by the Decision Analysis society. The book applies principles of behavioral economics to improve life outcomes.

Recent courses as listed in the Student Information System (SIS) Course Catalog:
GBUS 7351: Decision Analysis
Credits: 2
Business decisions, both tactical and strategic, are frequently made difficult by the presence of uncertainty in the resulting consequences. This course presents a philosophy for framing, analyzing, and proactively managing decisions involving uncertainty, whether the uncertainty results from general conditions or the actions of competitors. The course will focus on making the uncertainty explicit so that it can be objectively analyzed. Prerequisites: Restricted to Darden students.
GBUS 7355: Decision Analysis - Part I
Credits: 2
Business decisions, both tactical and strategic, are frequently made difficult by the presence of uncertainty in the resulting consequences. This course presents a philosophy for framing, analyzing, and proactively managing decisions involving uncertainty, whether the uncertainty results from general conditions or the actions of competitors. The course will focus on making the uncertainty explicit so that it can be objectively analyzed.
GBUS 7356: Decision Analysis - Part II
Credits: 2
Business decisions, both tactical and strategic, are frequently made difficult by the presence of uncertainty in the resulting consequences. This course presents a philosophy for framing, analyzing, and proactively managing decisions involving uncertainty, whether the uncertainty results from general conditions or the actions of competitors. The course will focus on making the uncertainty explicit so that it can be objectively analyzed.
GBUS 8015: Behavioral Decision Making
Credits: 2
In this course, students will examine many behavioral anomalies and, more important, explore some frames that explain these apparently irrational behaviors. The emphasis of the course is on solving practical business problems.
GBUS 8999: Darden Independent Study
Credits: 2–3
A Darden Independent Study elective includes either case development or a research project to be conducted by an individual student under the direction of a faculty member. Students should secure the agreement of a resident faculty member to supervise their independent study and assign the final grade that is to be based to a significant degree on written evidence of the individual student's accomplishment.