Richard Thaler won the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for contributions to behavioral economics.
Thaler’s research incorporated psychological insights into economic analysis, challenging the assumption that people always make fully rational decisions. He studied phenomena including limited self-control, mental accounting, fairness concerns, and how people treat gains and losses differently.
His work also influenced the design of “nudges,” small changes to the way choices are presented that can affect behavior without eliminating freedom of choice. Thaler and Cass Sunstein popularized the term in their 2008 book Nudge, but the Nobel award recognized Thaler’s broader research program.
Daniel Kahneman won the economics prize in 2002, and Robert Shiller won in 2013, so both are common mix-ups. Thaler was born in New Jersey in 1945 and taught at the University of Chicago. He is also known for studying the economic effects of seemingly irrational behavior.