American economist and cowinner (with James J. Heckman (Heckman, James J.)) of the 2000 Nobel Prize for Economics for his development of theory and methods used in the analysis of individual or household behaviour, such as understanding how people choose where to work, where to live, or when to marry.

After studying physics (B.S., 1957) and economics (Ph.D., 1962) at the University of Minnesota, McFadden taught economics at a number of institutions, including the University of California, Berkeley (1963–79), Yale University (1977–78), and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1978–91). In 1990 he returned to Berkeley and was named the E. Morris Cox Professor of Economics. He also served (1991–95, 1996– ) as the director of the university's Econometrics Laboratory. The recipient of numerous awards, McFadden was given the John Bates Clark Medal by the American Economics Association in 1975 and was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1981.

McFadden's work combined economic theory, statistical methods, and empirical applications toward the resolution of social problems. In 1974 he developed conditional logit analysis—a method for determining how individuals will choose among finite alternatives in order to maximize their utility. Through the analysis of discrete choice (i.e., the choices made among a finite set of decision alternatives), McFadden's work helped predict usage rates for public transportation systems, and his statistical methods were applied to studies of labour-force participation, health care, housing (particularly for the elderly), and the environment.