David Rothschild is an economist at Microsoft Research. He has a PhD in applied economics from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania. His primary body of work is on forecasting and understanding public interest and sentiment. Related work examines how the public absorbs information. He has written extensively, in both the academic and popular press, on polling, prediction markets, social media and online data, and predictions of upcoming events; most of his popular work has focused on understanding the public’s sentiment, an economist's take on public policy, and choices in news consumption.