PortalsOS

Richard Thaler explains the concept of loss aversion through an experiment involving Cornell coffee mugs. Participants who received a mug demanded twice as much to give it up than those who didn't have one were willing to pay to acquire it. This illustrates how people value retaining possessions more than acquiring new ones, leading to less trade.

Richard Thaler discusses overconfidence in decision-making, using the example of CFOs predicting the S&P 500's return. Despite being asked for high and low estimates, their predictions often miss the mark, highlighting the difficulty of market predictions.

Richard Thaler highlights the ethical considerations of nudges, noting that while they can be used to help people make better decisions, they can also be exploited for profit, as seen in the design of casinos and online gambling platforms.

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.

During the financial crisis, people irrationally upgraded to premium gasoline when prices fell, despite it being unnecessary for most cars. Richard Thaler uses this example to illustrate how mental accounting can lead to poor financial decisions.

Richard Thaler shares a story about how people are more likely to attend an event if they've paid for it, even if circumstances change. He notes that people will go to great lengths to honor a financial commitment, illustrating the power of sunk costs.

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.