Richard Thaler



Richard H. Thaler (b. September 12, 1945) is an economist perhaps best known as a theorist in behavioral finance and for his collaboration with Daniel Kahneman and others in further defining that field. He received his B.S. from Case Western Reserve University in 1967. At the University of Rochester, he received his M.S. in 1970 and his Ph.D. in Economics in 1974. He currently teaches at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and is an associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He has previously taught at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Thaler has also organized a series of behavioral finance seminars along with Robert Shiller, another behavioral finance expert at the Yale School of Management.

Thaler gained some attention in the field of economics for publishing a regular column in the Journal of Economic Perspectives from 1987 to 1990 titled "Anomalies", in which he documented individual instances of economic behavior that seemed to violate traditional microeconomic theory.

Kahneman later cited his joint work with Thaler as a "major factor" in his receiving the Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, saying "The committee cited me 'for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science ….'. Although I do not wish to renounce  any credit for my contribution, I should say that in my view the  work of integration was actually done mostly by Thaler and the  group of young economists that quickly began to form around him." 

Thaler also is the founder of an asset management firm that enables a select group of investors to capitalize on cognitive biases such as the endowment effect, loss aversion and status quo bias.

Thaler has also written a number of books intended for a lay reader on the subject of behavioral finance, including Quasi-rational Economics and The Winner's Curse, the latter of which contains many of his "Anomalies" columns revised and adapted for a popular audience.

Notable contributions

 * Endowment effect
 * Status quo bias
 * Mental accounting