Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics

Thaler, Richard H.

4.16

21,387 ratings by Goodreads

9781501238710: Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics

ISBN 10: 150123871X ISBN 13: 9781501238710

Publisher: Audible Studios on Brilliance audio, 2016

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Get ready to change the way you think about economics.

Richard H. Thaler has spent his career studying the radical notion that the central agents in the economy are humans—predictable, error-prone individuals.Misbehaving is his arresting, frequently hilarious account of the struggle to bring an academic discipline back down to earth—and change the way we think about economics, ourselves, and our world.

Traditional economics assumes rational actors. Early in his research, Thaler realized these Spock-like automatons were nothing like real people. Whether buying a clock radio, selling basketball 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, Thaler enlightens listeners about how to make smarter decisions in an increasingly mystifying world. He reveals how 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.

Laced with antic stories of Thaler’s spirited battles with the bastions of traditional economic thinking,Misbehaving is a singular look into profound human foibles. When economics meets psychology, the implications for individuals, managers, and policy makers are both profound and entertaining.

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Review:

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)

About the Author:

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.

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