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Richard Thaler shares his approach to writing his new book, which includes providing concise takeaways for both economists and general readers. He emphasizes the value of making complex economic concepts accessible and engaging.
Richard Thaler discusses the concept of 'nudges' and how changing a simple form increased employee participation in savings plans from 50% to 90%. By automatically enrolling employees unless they opt out, companies can significantly improve participation rates.
Richard Thaler explains the fairness principle in markets using Uber as an example. He argues that if Uber charged $5,000 for rides during a crisis like 9/11, it would quickly go out of business due to public outrage. This highlights how businesses must consider psychological factors and customer perception, not just profit.
Richard Thaler explains the 'winner's curse' using a classroom auction of a jar of coins. The highest bidder often overpays, illustrating how competitive bidding can lead to irrational decisions. This concept was first identified by engineers at ARCO when bidding for oil leases.
Richard Thaler shares an example of a nudge used on Lakeshore Drive, where lines are painted on the road to instinctively make drivers slow down around bends. This simple intervention helps prevent accidents by leveraging human instincts.
Richard Thaler highlights the concept of 'mental accounting,' where people irrationally categorize money, affecting their financial decisions. This concept is widely applicable and often leads to irrational spending behaviors.
Richard Thaler discusses the resistance he faced in academia when introducing behavioral economics. He recalls a time when he presented his theories on saving behavior to a psychology department, and the audience laughed because they found the traditional economic models unrealistic. Thaler points out that economists believed people behaved like expert billiards players, acting as if they knew physics, which he found absurd.
Richard Thaler and Danny Kahneman explored fairness in economics by asking if it's fair for a hardware store to raise snow shovel prices after a blizzard. Most people said no, except business school students, who believed it was justified based on microeconomic principles.
Richard Thaler discusses his project of revisiting and updating his 1992 book on economic anomalies. He highlights the importance of verifying whether the foundational experiments still hold true today, both in theory and in real-world applications.
Richard Thaler explains that the 'Winner's Curse' is a concept where people often overbid in auctions, leading to overpayment. He shares a story about an editor who avoided bidding on a book because he understood this concept, illustrating its practical application.