Richard H. Thaler Won 2017 Nobel Prize for Studies in Behavioral Economics

Richard H. Thaler won the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for work incorporating psychologically realistic assumptions of limited rationality, social preferences, and lack of self-control into analyses of economic decision-making, showing how these human traits systematically affect individual decisions and market outcomes.

“Richard Thaler’s contributions have built a bridge between the economic and psychological analyses of individual decision-making,” the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in announcing the award. “His empirical findings and theoretical insights have been instrumental in creating the new and rapidly expanding field of behavioral economics….”

At the time of the award, Thaler was the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He was affiliated with the NBER's Asset Pricing Program and in 2016 coordinated, with Robert Shiller, the launch of the NBER Working Group on Behavioral Economics.

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