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Richard Thaler

Author •
Economist

Winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

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About

Gender: Male

Nationality: United States

Languages: English

Travels from: United States

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Biography Highlights

Professor of Behavioral Science & Economics - University of Chicago Graduate School of Business
Field-Defining Pioneer of Behavioral Economics
Co-Author of Bestseller 'Nudge', Author of 'Misbehaving'

Biography

Richard H. Thaler is the 2017 recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his contributions to behavioral economics. Thaler studies behavioral economics and finance as well as the psychology of decision-making which lies in the gap between economics and psychology. He investigates the implications of relaxing the standard economic assumption that everyone in the economy is rational and selfish, instead entertaining the possibility that some of the agents in the economy are sometimes human.

Thaler is the co-author (with Cass R. Sunstein) of the global best seller Nudge (2008) in which the concepts of behavioral economics are used to tackle many of society’s major problems. In 2015 he published Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics. He has authored or edited four other books: Quasi-Rational Economics, The Winner’s Curse: Paradoxes and Anomalies of Economic Life, and Advances in Behavioral Finance (editor) Volumes I and II. He has published numerous articles in prominent journals such as the American Economics Review, the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Political Economy, and is a regular contributor to the New York Times Economic View column. In 2018. he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

Thaler is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Finance Association and the Econometrics Society, and in 2015 served as the President of the American Economic Association.

Before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1995 Thaler taught at the University of Rochester and Cornell as well as visiting stints at The University of British Columbia, the Sloan School of Management at MIT, the Russell Sage Foundation and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford.

Thaler is a Founding Principal at Fuller and Thaler Asset Management where they manage about $10 billion in U.S. equities. He was an informal advisor to the coalition government led by David Cameron, the Obama administration, and currently for several professional sports teams.

Originally from New Jersey, Thaler attended Case Western Reserve University where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1967. Soon after, he attended the University of Rochester where he received a master’s degree in 1970 and a PhD in 1974. He joined the Chicago Booth faculty in 1995.

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Popular Talks

How to Make Better Decisions

Drawing on decades of research in the fields of behavioral science and economics, Nobel laureate Richard Thaler offers a new perspective on personal choices we may later regret – bad personal investments, consumption of unhealthy foods, neglect of our natural resources – and shows us how sensible “choice architecture” can nudge people toward the best decisions. Whether motivating students to embark on a path to success or helping executives inspire organizations, Thaler helps all audiences hack the practice of becoming their best selves.

Available: In person, Virtually

Understanding American Markets & Consumer Behavior

Nobel laureate Richard Thaler unpacks the psychology of decision-making which lies in the gap between economics and psychology. Thaler presents everyday challenges to the received economic wisdom, examining cases and transactions relevant to host industries and concerns.

Available: In person, Virtually

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Testimonials

If I had to be trapped in an elevator with any contemporary intellectual, I’d pick Richard Thaler.

Malcolm Gladwell

Nudge is as important a book as any I’ve read in perhaps twenty years

Barry Schwartz

The American Prospect

Books

Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

Nudge is about choices-how we make them and how we can make better ones. Authors Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein offer a new perspective on preventing the countless mistakes we make- including ill-advised personal investments, consumption of unhealthy foods, neglect of our natural resources, and other bad decisions. Citing decades of cutting-edge behavioral science research, they demonstrate that sensible “choice architecture”can successfully nudge people towards the best decisions without restricting their freedom of choice. S straightforward, informative, and entertaining, this is a must-read for anyone with interest in our individual and collective well-being.

Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics

From the renowned and entertaining behavioural economist and co-author of the seminal work Nudge, Misbehaving is an irreverent and enlightening look into human foibles. Traditional economics assumes that rational forces shape everything. Behavioural economics knows better. Richard Thaler has spent his career studying the notion that humans are central to the economy – and that we’re error-prone individuals, not Spock-like automatons. Now behavioural economics is hugely influential, changing the way we think not just about money, but about ourselves, our world and all kinds of everyday decisions. Whether buying an alarm clock, selling football tickets, or applying for a mortgage, we all succumb to biases and make decisions that deviate from the standards of rationality assumed by economists. In other words, we misbehave. Dismissed at first by economists as an amusing sideshow, the study of human miscalculations and their effects on markets now drives efforts to make better decisions in our lives, our businesses, and our governments. Coupling recent discoveries in human psychology with a practical understanding of incentives and market behaviour, Thaler enlightens readers about how to make smarter decisions in an increasingly mystifying world. He reveals how behavioural economic analysis opens up new ways to look at everything from household finance to assigning faculty offices in a new building, to TV quiz shows, sports transfer seasons, and businesses like Uber. When economics meets psychology, the implications for individuals, managers and policy makers are both profound and entertaining.

The Winner`s Curse – Paradoxes and Anomalies of Economic Life

Richard Thaler challenges the received economic wisdom by revealing many of the paradoxes that abound even in the most painstakingly constructed transactions. He presents literate, challenging, and often funny examples of such anomalies as why the winners at auctions are often the real losers–they pay too much and suffer the “winner’s curse”–why gamblers bet on long shots at the end of a losing day, why shoppers will save on one appliance only to pass up the identical savings on another, and why sports fans who wouldn’t pay more than $200 for a Super Bowl ticket wouldn’t sell one they own for less than $400. He also demonstrates that markets do not always operate with the traplike efficiency we impute to them. An ebook edition is available from The Free Press at leading on-line booksellers.

Quasi Rational Economics

Standard economics theory is built on the assumption that human beings act rationally in their own self interest. But if rationality is such a reliable factor, why do economic models so often fail to predict market behavior accurately? According to Richard Thaler, the shortcomings of the standard approach arise from its failure to take into account systematic mental biases that color all human judgments and decisions.

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