The Nobel Prize awarding panel argued that Professor Thaler’s insights helped people to recognize marketing tricks and avoid bad economic decisions. Specifically, his insights into the so-called nudging effect to help people do more long-term planning like saving for a pension.
“Richard Thaler’s findings have inspired many other researchers coming in his footsteps and it has paved the way for a new field in economics which we call behavioural economics,” one of the Nobel prize judges, Per Stroemberg, told BBC.
Nudging is part of the field of behavioral economics that examines how gut reactions can often overrule rational choice, which Thaler is seen as a pioneer of. For example, Brexit may be seen as an example of behavioral economics in action, reflecting majority voters whom chose an economically irrational route when given options laid out to them by elites and mainstream media, the Guardian reports.
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