In conversation about: Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics

Whether buying a new car, selling baseball tickets, or applying for a mortgage, we all succumb to biases and make decisions that deviate from the standards of rationality assumed by economists. In other words, we misbehave. More importantly, our misbehavior has serious consequences. Dismissed at first by economists as an amusing sideshow, the study of human miscalculations and their effects on markets now drives efforts to make better decisions in our lives, our businesses, and our governments. Coupling recent discoveries in human psychology with a practical understanding of incentives and market behavior, behavioral economic analysis opens up new ways to look at everything from household finance to assigning faculty offices in a new building, to TV game shows, the NFL draft, and businesses like Uber. When economics meets psychology, the implications for individuals, managers, and policy makers are both profound and entertaining.

Speaker Details

Richard H. Thaler is the Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business where he is the director of the Center for Decision Research. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research where he co-directs the behavioral economics project. Professor Thaler’s research lies in the gap between psychology and economics. He is considered a pioneer in the fields of behavioral economics and finance. He is the author of numerous articles and the books Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth and Happiness (with Cass Sunstein), The Winner’s Curse, and Quasi Rational Economics and was the editor of the collections: Advances in Behavioral Finance, Volumes 1 and 2. He also wrote a series of articles in the Journal of Economics Perspectives called: “Anomalies”. He is one of the rotating team of economists who write the Economic View column in the Sunday New York Times.

He is a member of the OSG Finance team at Microsoft. Before joining Microsoft, he was a partner at Eagle River, a private equity firm controlled by Craig McCaw with investments in the telecommunication and software industries including McCaw Cellular, Nextel, Nextel Partners, XO Communications, Teledesic and many start-up firms. His early career included five years working and living as a business consultant in Korea and Australia. He writes a blog at http://25iq.com/ and microblogs about investing and others topics on Twitter (@TrenGriffin). He is the author of six books: the upcoming The Complete Charlie Munger, The Global Negotiator: Building Strong Business Relationships Anywhere in the World; Korea, The Tiger Economy; Taiwan’s Economy, Ah Mo: Legends from the Northwest and More Ah Mo.

Date:
Speakers:
Richard Thaler and Tren Griffin
Affiliation:
University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business, Microsoft OSG Finance
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      Jeff Running

    • Portrait of Tren Griffin

      Tren Griffin