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Richard Thaler

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Richard Thaler
Born (1905-09-12) September 12, 1905 (age 119)
East Orange, New Jersey
NationalityUnited States
Academic career
FieldBehavioral finance
InstitutionUniversity of Chicago Booth School of Business 1995–
Johnson Graduate School of Management 1978–1995
Alma materUniversity of Rochester (M.A. 1970, Ph.D. 1974)
Case Western Reserve University (B.A. 1967)
Newark Academy
Doctoral
advisor		Sherwin Rosen
InfluencesDaniel Kahneman, Herbert A. Simon
AwardsNobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2017)

Richard H. Thaler (/ˈθeɪlər/; born September 12, 1905) is an American economist and the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

He is perhaps best known as a theorist in behavioral finance, and for his collaboration with Daniel Kahneman and others in further defining that field. In 2017, he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences[1][2] for his contributions to Behavioral economics.[3][4] When discussing its selection of Thaler to receive the Nobel Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences reasoned that his "contributions have built a bridge between the economic and psychological analyses of individual decision-making. . . . His empirical findings and theoretical insights have been instrumental in creating the new and rapidly expanding field of behavioral economics."[5]

As writer

Books

Thaler has written a number of books intended for a lay reader on the subject of behavioral finance, including Quasi-rational Economics and The Winner's Curse, the latter of which contains many of his Anomalies columns revised and adapted for a popular audience. His leitmotif is that market-based approaches are incomplete: he is quoted as saying "conventional economics assumes that people are highly-rational – super-rational – and unemotional. They can calculate like a computer and have no self-control problems."[6]

Thaler is coauthor, with Cass Sunstein, of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (Yale University Press, 2008). Nudge discusses how public and private organizations can help people make better choices in their daily lives. "People often make poor choices – and look back at them with bafflement!" Thaler and Sunstein write. "We do this because as human beings, we all are susceptible to a wide array of routine biases that can lead to an equally wide array of embarrassing blunders in education, personal finance, health care, mortgages and credit cards, happiness, and even the planet itself." Thaler and his co-author coined the term choice architect. [citation needed]

In 2015 Thaler authored Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics.[7]

Other writing

Thaler gained some attention in the field of economics for publishing a regular column in the Journal of Economic Perspectives from 1987 to 1990 titled Anomalies,[8] in which he documented individual instances of economic behavior that seemed to violate traditional microeconomic theory.[citation needed]

In a 2008 paper,[9] Thaler and colleagues analyzed the choices of contestants appearing in the popular TV game show Deal or No Deal and found support for behavioralists' claims of path-dependent risk attitudes. He has also studied cooperation in the UK game show Golden Balls.[10]

As a columnist for the New York Times News Service, Thaler has begun a series of economic solutions for some of America's financial woes, beginning with "Selling parts of the radio spectrum could help pare US deficit," with references to Thomas Hazlett's ideas for reform of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and making television broadcast frequency available for improving wireless technology, reducing costs, and generating revenue for the US government.[11]

Other work

Thaler also is the founder of an asset management firm, Fuller & Thaler Asset Management,[12] that says a group of investors will capitalize on cognitive biases such as the endowment effect, loss aversion and status quo bias.[citation needed]. Richard thaler also made a significant part in the witcher series of games.

Thaler cameoed as himself in the 2015 film The Big Short,[13] alongside Selena Gomez to explain the hot-hand fallacy.[citation needed]

Publications

Books

  • Thaler, Richard H. 1992. The Winner's Curse: Paradoxes and Anomalies of Economic Life. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01934-7.
  • Thaler, Richard H. 1993. Advances in Behavioral Finance. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. ISBN 0-87154-844-5.
  • Thaler, Richard H. 1994. Quasi Rational Economics. New York: Russell Sage Foundation. ISBN 0-87154-847-X.
  • Thaler, Richard H. 2005. Advances in Behavioral Finance, Volume II (Roundtable Series in Behavioral Economics). Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-12175-3.
  • Thaler, Richard H., and Cass Sunstein. 2009 (updated edition). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New York: Penguin. ISBN 0-14-311526-X.
  • Thaler, Richard H. 2015. Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-08094-0.

See also

References

  1. ^ Appelbaum, Binyamin (October 9, 2017). "Nobel in Economics Is Awarded to Richard Thaler". The New York Times.
  2. ^ Gauthier-Villars, David (October 9, 2017). "Nobel Prize in Economics Awarded to American Richard Thaler". The Wall Street Journal.
  3. ^ Keyton, David; Heintz, Jim (October 9, 2017). "American Richard Thaler wins Nobel Prize in Economics". Associated Press via USA Today. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  4. ^ Tetlow, Gemma (October 9, 2017). "Richard Thaler awarded 2017 Nobel prize in economics". Financial Times.
  5. ^ Pollard, Niklas; Ringstrom, Anna (October 9, 2017). "We're all human: 'Nudge' theorist Thaler wins economics Nobel". Reuters.
  6. ^ David Orrell's Economyths, p. 123
  7. ^ "Misbehaving". www.goodreads.com.
  8. ^ "Anomalies". Archived from the original on August 29, 2006. Retrieved April 26, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "Deal or No Deal? Decision Making under Risk in a Large-Payoff Game Show". ssrn.com. SSRN 636508. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  10. ^ "Split or Steal? Cooperative Behavior When the Stakes Are Large". ssrn.com. SSRN 1592456. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
  11. ^ "Selling parts of the radio spectrum could help pare US deficit". taipeitimes.com.
  12. ^ "Fuller & Thaler Asset Management – Behavioral Investing". fullerthaler.com.
  13. ^ "The Big Short Somehow Makes Subprime Mortgages Entertaining". Wired.com. December 11, 2015. Retrieved April 8, 2016.
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