U.S. academic Richard Thaler, who helped popularize the idea of "nudging" people toward doing what is best for them, on Monday won the 2017 Nobel economics prize — officially called the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel — for his work on how human nature affects supposedly rational markets.
Influential in the field of behavioral economics, his research showed how traits such as lack of self-control and fear of losing what you already have prompt decisions that may not have the best outcome in the longer term.
"I think the most important impact (of my research) is the recognition that economic agents are human and economic models have to incorporate that," Thaler, a professor at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, said in call broadcast at the Nobel news conference.