Richard Thaler

Leaders are important but not omnipotent.

— Richard Thaler

Why tie to gold? Why not 1982 Bordeaux?

— Richard Thaler

Tort reform is a complicated subject and not a panacea.

— Richard Thaler

We could all use more coaching.

— Richard Thaler

Coining a term is not the same as creating a field!

— Richard Thaler

If you want to encourage some activity, make it easy.

— Richard Thaler

I practice what has come to be called behavioral economics.

— Richard Thaler

Sunk costs? We pay too much attention to them.

— Richard Thaler

One reason for high health care costs is that patients fail to follow their treatment regimen.

— Richard Thaler

If governments want to encourage good citizenship, they should try making the desired behavior more fun.

— Richard Thaler

If no estate tax is imposed, capital gains taxes can be avoided indefinitely.

— Richard Thaler

People make just as many mistakes when the stakes go up, maybe more.

— Richard Thaler

The main thing that you learn in grad school, or should learn, is how to think like an economist. The rest is…

— Richard Thaler

The lesson from behavioral economics is that people only save if it's automatic.

— Richard Thaler

Economists discount any factors that would not influence the thinking of a rational person.

— Richard Thaler

I'm all for empowerment and education, but the empirical evidence is that it doesn't work. That's why I say make it easy.

— Richard Thaler

There can be legal conflicts over whether registering intent is enough to qualify you as an organ donor or whether a doctor…

— Richard Thaler

The reason is they failed to learned the primary lesson we should have learned from when Long Term Capital Management went belly…

— Richard Thaler

Social Security may be the most beloved of all the government's programs, partly because it requires so little thinking. You pay taxes…

— Richard Thaler

Pundits are no better at forecasting election outcomes than they would be at predicting the final path of a hurricane. Smart pundits…

— Richard Thaler

Many Americans say they want to be organ donors, but they just don't get around to acting on their intentions. Helping these…

— Richard Thaler

If you're not putting enough away for emergencies or retirement, making commitments in advance, such as signing up for payroll withholding, can…

— Richard Thaler

When it comes to my health, I would rather my doctor base her decisions on science rather than what she, or some…

— Richard Thaler

Most people start claiming benefits within a year of when they become eligible, although benefits increase substantially if they wait.

— Richard Thaler

A company invites their employees to sign up for a plan where every time they get a raise, some part of that…

— Richard Thaler

It is true that I am one of the co-authors of 'Nudge,' and I am a behavioral economist, but it does not…

— Richard Thaler

In the 1940s, economics started getting highly mathematical. It was basically because economists weren't smart enough to write down models of real…

— Richard Thaler

The money has to be deferred with what they call "clawback," which means they can get it back if I lose it…

— Richard Thaler

The government employs scientists of many varieties in technical capacities, from estimating the environmental toxicity of a chemical to the structural soundness…

— Richard Thaler

If rather than setting the minimum balance as the lowest possible amount, so we keep people in debt for as long as…

— Richard Thaler

I try to teach people to make fewer mistakes. But in designing economic policies, we need to take full account of the…

— Richard Thaler

Maybe you'll take the cash out. So a credit card company or a bank that goes into the business of saying we're…

— Richard Thaler

A good rule of thumb is to assume that everything matters.

— Richard Thaler

I don't think it says anywhere in the Bible that tithing should be calculated on a before-tax basis.

— Richard Thaler

We humans actually need help controlling our impulses - nudges.

— Richard Thaler

If people just put away what's left at the end of the month, that's a recipe for failure.

— Richard Thaler

My mantra is if you want to help people accomplish some goal, make it easy.

— Richard Thaler

For many people, being asked to solve their own retirement savings problems is like being asked to build their own cars.

— Richard Thaler

When it comes to assessing the chances of some complicated combination of events, gut feelings are pretty much useless.

— Richard Thaler

We behavioralists differ from our more traditional brethren in the way we characterize agents in the economy.

— Richard Thaler