Richard Thaler
Bringing economics into the real world of human decision-making
Intro
As the winner of the 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, it goes without saying that Richard Thaler has made several key contributions to behavioral economics. His work is particularly noteworthy due to the ways in which it integrates the fields of economics and psychology. Since the early days of his career, Thaler has been fascinated by the anomalies of economic life; the financial decisions people make that cannot be explained through understanding humans as rational actors. In order to explain these phenomena, Thaler had to challenge existing theories and endure the backlash that followed. It may have been an uphill battle but today he is recognized as one of the leading figures in his field.1
A nudge, as we will use the term, is any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people’s behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives.
– Richard H. Thalerin Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Sekoul is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. A decision scientist with a PhD in Decision Neuroscience from McGill University, Sekoul's work has been featured in peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at conferences around the world. Sekoul previously advised management on innovation and engagement strategy at The Boston Consulting Group as well as on online media strategy at Google. He has a deep interest in the applications of behavioral science to new technology and has published on these topics in places such as the Huffington Post and Strategy & Business.
