Thaler, Richard H., 1945–, American economist, b. East Orange, N.J., Ph.D. Univ. of Rochester, 1974. He was a professor at the Univ. of Rochester (1974–78) and at Cornell (1978–95), and has been at the Univ. of Chicago since 1995. He also is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. An influential behaviorial economist who was one of the founders of behavioral finance, he has avoided an overarching theoretical approach in favor of focusing on specific examples of how decision-making is affected by a imperfect self control and rationality, social preferences, and other human traits. He is perhaps best known for Nudge (2008), which he wrote with Cass R. Sunstein; the book examines how the insights of behavioral economics can help people make more sensible and beneficial choices. Thaler also wrote The Winner's Curse (1992) and Quasi-Rational Economics (1994). In 2017 he was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his incorporation of psychologically realistic assumptions into his examination of economic decision-making.
See his professional memoir, Misbehaving (2015).
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