Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics

Description

The renowned behavioural economist exposes the irrational tendencies in our thinking and illuminates the way to make clear, logical decisions Why are we more likely to forgo the opportunity to sell a e100 bottle of wine rather than actually taking money out our wallet to pay for it, when ultimately the 'opportunity cost' of doing so is the same? Why would the 'endowment effect' mean that we value a free ticket worth hundreds of pounds more than the money we would get from selling it? As the most vivacious and vociferous founding member of behavioural economics, Thaler presents his insightful findings with stories about data and experiments and shows us how to avoid making costly mistakes in our own lives.

Richard H. Thaler is the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics and the director of the Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2017.

Wildly disruptive -- Michael Lewis * Bloomberg * Gripping... a novelised intellectual history, replete with heroes and villains, triumphs and disasters, conflicts and comradeship... Thaler is a brilliant scholar, endlessly curious, empirically inclined and public spirited * Guardian * Misbehaving gives us the story behind some of the most important insights in modern economics. If I had to be trapped in an elevator with any contemporary intellectual, I'd pick Richard Thaler -- Malcolm Gladwell A long, genial, often humorous account of the progress of Behavioural Economics by one of its most gifted practitioners. Kahneman has described Thaler as lazy; he meant it as a compliment because Thaler's laziness means he concentrates only on the really important questions that get him out of bed in the morning... this is important stuff -- Bryan Appleyard * Sunday Times * Robust enough intellectually to be a serious work of social science and a proper record of an important intellectual movement, Misbehaving is also fun for the general reader... a good book about an important topic -- Daniel Finkelstein * The Times * Professor Thaler's entertaining book provides an important reminder of both the challenges and opportunities that come from working across the sometimes artificial boundaries between academic disciplines -- Jonathan A. Knee * New York Times *