Richard Thaler

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Richard Thaler, 2015

Richard H. Thaler (born September 12, 1945 in East Orange , New Jersey ) is an American economist and professor at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago . He is considered one of the world's leading behavioral economists and advised, among others, the former US President Barack Obama . In 2017 Thaler was awarded the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics .

Life

Richard H. Thaler received his bachelor's degree from Case Western Reserve University in 1967 and his master's degree from the University of Rochester in 1970 . In 1974, he was up there with the work The Value of Saving A Life for Ph. D. doctorate . He stayed at Rochester as an assistant professor for four years before moving to Cornell University . There he was Assistant Professor from 1978 to 1980, Associate Professor from 1980 to 1986, Professor from 1986 to 1988 and Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor from 1988 to 1995 . In 1995 he became a Robert P. Gwinn Professor and later a Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago . In 1994/95 he was visiting professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology .

Thaler was President of the American Economic Association in 2015 . In 2017, he was awarded the Alfred Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics for his research on business psychology .

Scientific impact

Thaler works in the field of behavioral economics ; he studies market anomalies and decision-making processes. He is concerned with the effects that people who act in reality - contrary to economic assumptions to the contrary - do not always act as " homo oeconomicus ", i. H. does not always make rational decisions in favor of one's own interests. For example, Thaler found evidence for the path dependency of risk behavior (small profits lead to taking ever greater risks) as well as for voluntary cooperation when a lot is at stake. The incentives introduced in the United Kingdom to increase the participation of the population in pension funds go back to the reception by the British Conservatives of the book Nudge , co-authored by Thaler and Cass Sunstein . Because Thaler's demand for government behavior incentives that the for myopia ( myopia -prone) masses by nudging could motivate an economically rational behavior, his approach was neoliberal critics like Casey B. Mulligan called "paternalistic". From the point of view of democracy theory, the objection is that nudging enables politicians to disregard the will of the people or to manipulate it with economic incentives.

Thaler is at least partially in favor of the abolition of cash because he considers its use to be irrational and corruption-promoting. He welcomed the abolition of the 500 and 1000 rupee notes in India in 2016, which, however, led to temporary chaos. Critics consider the widespread reservations against the abolition of cash due to the impending loss of anonymity and the risk that the full digitalization of money could lead to government financing through negative interest rates as thoroughly rational.

Works

Awards

Memberships

Web links

Commons : Richard Thaler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Felix Holtermann, Olaf Storbeck: The hour of seducers - ... The "Homo oeconomicus" has had its day. In: Handelsblatt. dated May 17, 2010.
  2. ↑ Honor: Nobel Prize in Economics goes to behavioral economist Richard H. Thaler . In: Spiegel Online . October 9, 2017 ( spiegel.de [accessed October 9, 2017]).
  3. ^ Richard Reeves: Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics by Richard H Thaler review - why don't people pursue their own best interests? In: The Guardian , July 4, 2015.
  4. ↑ https://www.heise.de/tp/features/Die-dunkle-Seite-des-Wirtschaftsnobelpreistraegers-3854572.html
  5. ^ Book of Members. Retrieved July 23, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Thaler, Richard
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thaler, Richard H.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American economist
DATE OF BIRTH September 12, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH East Orange , New Jersey, USA