As Associate Professor of Psychology at SF State and a co-founder of BeyondThePurchase.Org, Dr. Howell established The Personality and Well-Being Laboratory, which has become a hub of groundbreaking research on the relationship between money and happiness.

Dr. Howell has authored more than 35 scholarly publications in a number of leading academic journals, including his article “The relation of economic status to subjective well-being in developing countries: A meta-analysis” published in Psychological Bulletin, attracting significant international media attention, and stimulating a flurry of related publications from his lab. Recently, his TEDx talk entitled "Is buying happiness simple or complex? It's both" described how the psychology of spending can teach you how to maximize your daily happiness.