His research focuses on experimental and behavioral economics, social network analysis, labor economics, applied microeconomics, and agent-based modelling. He has done research on diverse topics including the impact of social networks on job finding and labor market outcomes, the competition for social status in networks, discrimination in the labor market, entrepreneurship among ethnic minorities, whistleblowing in organizations, bank runs, and the evolution of cooperation.

His has articles have appeared in academic journals including the European Economic Review, Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization, Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics, Economics Letters, Journal of Theoretical Biology, B.E. Journal of Theoretical Economics, and PLOS ONE. His research has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Horváth has a B.A. in economics from Corvinus University, Hungary, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in economics from the University of Alicante, Spain. He was a postdoctoral fellow at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany. Before joining Duke Kunshan, he held faculty positions in China at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics and Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, and had research visits at the University of Cambridge, the European University Institute, the National Bank of Hungary, and Massey University.