George Thaler
George Thaler
George Thaler is a renowned behavioral economist and author. He has authored numerous books and articles, as well as receiving numerous awards and honors.
Thaler is widely regarded as a pioneer of behavioral economics, which brings insights from psychology into the realm of economics. His work has been cited thousands of times in academic journals and papers alike.
Early Life and Education
Thaler spent his formative years in Vienna, Austria with his parents Heinrich and Katherine Thaler.
After graduating high school in 1938, he continued on to the University of Rochester where he pursued psychiatry.
He served as a psychiatry resident at the University of Rochester from 1950 to 1960 and also taught first- and second-year medical students there.
His most influential accomplishment as an educator came from his involvement with first-year psychiatry and psychosocial medicine courses at the university. These files, organized by academic year, contain lecture transcripts and teaching materials.
Professional Career
George Thaler is an eminent academic who has taught at both the Universities of Chicago and Princeton for many years. He is widely considered a pioneering figure in behavioral economics.
Thaler is a major figure in this field, having collaborated with psychologists Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky. In his behavioural economics work, Thaler has explored how people make economic decisions.
He notes that many of the same mistakes are made repeatedly. These may include holding onto losses even when they have already been sunk costs in the past.
Thaler has dedicated himself to researching and improving these habits, leading millions around the world – particularly in the United States and UK – to automatically enroll in workplace pension schemes. Through his efforts, millions more people are now benefiting from these changes.
Achievements and Honors
George Thaler has earned numerous accolades throughout his life, such as being inducted as an honorary member of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis and becoming a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
He is an esteemed mathematician and author, having published books on various topics such as mathematical analysis and economics.
He has earned recognition for his expertise as a public policy expert. He was instrumental in the development of benefit-cost analysis, an approach to studying the costs and advantages associated with various policies.
Personal Life
George Thaler is a pioneering figure in behavioural economics. His groundbreaking studies on risk, confidence, sequencing, preferences, bargaining, incentives, privacy and healthy behaviors have had an immense impact on this field.
He is a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and director of the Center for Behavioral Decision Research. As an authority in both behavioural economics and neuroeconomics – fields he helped pioneer – he is widely regarded as an innovator.
Nobel prize-winning economist has an intimate understanding of psychology and is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading academics. His most renowned contribution to behavioural economics is likely the hot-cold empathy gap, but his work has had an immense impact across a range of areas such as how people feel when they pay for things or their attitudes towards fairness – among many others.