Intro
Matthew Rabin is one of the most important names in behavioral economics. Beginning his academic career in the 1990s, Rabin has consistently been an open advocate for behavioral economics. He understands that traditional economics, whilst having its uses, is still severely limited when it comes to explaining how people actually act instead of how they should act according to rationality.
As a result, Rabin has spent his career trying to better understand economic behavior by researching the psychological causes behind the fact that people veer from making decisions that maximize utility. Thanks to Rabin’s relentless investigation as to why anomalies exist in research based on traditional economics ideologies, he has been able to use psychological phenomena to address the fact that these anomalies are not just anomalies. He suggests that economists have long made excuses for these anomalies, which he famously termed “explain-away-tions”1 and tries to get to the bottom of real-life human behavior. His charisma and dedication to the field have enabled behavioral economics to gain credence and popularity.
Many young economists have been worried that studying these topics is a risky career path; they now have recognition that behavioral economics is no longer considered radical
– Richard Thaler discussing Matthew Rabin’s influence in popularizing behavioral economics and incorporating it into mainstream theory, in The New York Times.2
