10 Oct Richard Thaler, 2017 Economics Nobel Prize winner, supported demonetisation

When India announced demonetisation last November, Nobel Prize winner Richard Thaler described it as a “policy I have long supported” but also remarked “damn” when it was brought to his notice that the government was introducing ₹2,000 currency notes.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences today said Dr. Thaler has incorporated psychologically realistic assumptions into analyses of economic decision-making.

“By exploring the consequences of limited rationality, social preferences, and lack of self-control, he has shown how these human traits systematically affect individual decisions as well as market outcomes,” it said in a release while announcing him as the winner of the Nobel Prize.

Dr. Thaler is the Charles R Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Economics and Behavioural Science and Director of the Centre for Decision Research, Booth School of Business, University of Chicago.