The Behavioralizing of Economics | Richard Thaler | Talks at Google

Economist Richard Thaler visited Google's office in Cambridge, MA to discuss the topic "The Behaviorializing of Economics: Why Did It Take So Long?".
The talk is an introduction to his book "Misbehaving". He points out that economic models are based on ideal entities he calls "econs". But maybe economic choices are made by entities we might call "humans".
Richard Thaler is an American economist and the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He is the coauthor of the best-selling book "Nudge" with Cass R. Sunstein, and the author of "Quasi Rational Economics", "The Winner’s Curse", and "Misbehaving: The Making of Behavorial Economics".

[@ShiltoCrarpo]

Great presentation. Uncomfortably solid arguments.

[@JamesRosenthalGOOGLE]

Fascinating. Well and unemotionally argued.

[@douglashurd4356]

At 46:25 The question, "How do they square these ideas that are both popular and contradictory?"
To me it seems similar to the way that so many intelligent people also believe in religion. They are able to compartmentalize incompatible world views. Their 'system 1' offers a way forward based on the current context and 'system 2' backs up that model with post-hoc rationalizations.

[@theuglynovember]

"he kind of drew that chart... just free hand"
Dude is hilarious.

[@lizgichora6472]

Market Price and Value: Deriving behavior from relevant material with evidence based experiments may lead to better decision making. Michael Lewis on Behavioral Economics, Prices and Value correlate with behavior, thank you for an interesting topic.

[@isaacdarche7103]

The possibility of random, inefficient markets undermines the moral basis of free enterprise.

[@hankigoe8615]

16:55 eviscerating EMH
28:35 perfect counter example
38:20 classic soros

[@userring]

37:28

[@vaibhavkarv]

The actual 'scientific' reason that the fruit seller put a lock on the money box and kept the fruits open was to deter one dishonest person who could steal all the cash and walk, but cannot steal ALL the fruit if they wish.

[@vaibhavkarv]

So in a sense it is an economic decision. Say for example someone is dishonest, it is easy for them to steal all the cash and walk but difficult to steal all the fruit.

[@markusdomanski6808]

The beauty of classical economics was that you could use math to come to conclusions. With behavioral economics, you know nothing and can't draw any conclusions, except that fools make bad decisions and always hope to get lucky. So basically the point is that there is no point in analyzing economics after all. Instead of investing in the stock market, you could give your money to some random dude in Vegas or some internet poker addict.

[@SafeTrucking]

Not at all. The point is that humans behave somewhat predictably irrationally and that economics has to take that irrationality into account, by considering the psychological effects of decision-making. It's not that analysis is bad, it's that bad analysis is inadequate.

[@dr94279]

neo-classical economics uses math, classical or austrian economics would reject it, even Keynes rejected it