Richard Thaler

Richard H. Thaler (born September 12, 1945, in East Orange) is an American economist perhaps best known as a theorist in behavioral finance and for his collaboration with Daniel Kahneman and others in further defining that field. He received his B.A. from Case Western Reserve University in 1967. At the University of Rochester, he received his M.S. in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Economics in 1974. He currently teaches at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and is an associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has previously taught at Cornell University and the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Thaler presides as an in-house expert who regularly consults with Barack Obama's top economic advisor for the 2008 Obama presidential campaign, Austan Goolsbee [ [http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=4d40a39e-8f57-4054-bd99-94bc9d19be1a The Audacity of Data ] ] .

Thaler has also organized a series of behavioral finance seminars along with Robert Shiller, another behavioral finance expert at the Yale School of Management.

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" [ [http://faculty.chicagogsb.edu/richard.thaler/research/Anomalies.htm Anomalies] ] , in which he documented individual instances of economic behavior that seemed to violate traditional microeconomic theory.

Kahneman later cited his joint work with Thaler as a "major factor" in his receiving the Nobel Prize in Economics, saying "The committee cited me 'for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science ….'. Although I do not wish to renounce any credit for my contribution, I should say that in my view the work of integration was actually done mostly by Thaler and the group of young economists that quickly began to form around him." [ [http://www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/2002/kahneman-autobio.html Daniel Kahneman-Autobiography] ]

Thaler also is the founder of an asset management firm [ [http://www.fullerthaler.com/ Fuller & Thaler Asset Management, Inc] ] that enables a select group of investors to capitalize on cognitive biases such as the endowment effect, loss aversion and status quo bias.

Thaler has also 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.

In one of his most recent papers [ [http://ssrn.com/abstract=636508 Deal or No Deal? Decision Making Under Risk in a Large-Payoff Game Show] ] , together with three Dutch economists Thaler has 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.

Thaler is coauthor, with Cass R. 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."

ee also

* Endowment effect
* Status quo bias
* Mental accounting

References

External links

* [http://www.nber.org/vitae/vita507.htm Curriculum Vitae]
* [http://www.chicagogsb.edu/faculty/bio.aspx?&min_year=20074&max_year=20083&person_id=31455 Faculty home page at U of Chicago]
* [http://kent.kellogg.northwestern.edu/460/news/Exuberance%20Is%20Rational.htm Article: Exuberance is rational]
* [http://ssrn.com/abstract=636508 Article: Deal or No Deal]
* [http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2006/11/richard_thaler_1.html Podcast featuring Thaler] Thaler discusses libertarian paternalism on EconTalk.
* [http://www.nudges.org Nudge web page]
* [http://nudges.wordpress.com Nudge blog]

Persondata
NAME= Thaler, Richard H.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=American economist
DATE OF BIRTH=September 12, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH=East Orange, New Jersey, USA
DATE OF DEATH=
PLACE OF DEATH=