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Behavioral Economics

Fat Lazy Neighborhoods?

Peter A. Ubel | Posted 10.26.2009 | Politics

Read More: Msnbc, Health, Behavioral Economics, Fox News, Glenn Beck, Psychology, Diabetes, Keith Olbermann, Partisanship, Politics News
Peter A. Ubel

Human behavior is ultimately the main cause of diabetes. But no person's behavior is completely under their own control. A number of social forces are at play, too.

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Were The Economics Nobel Prize Winners "Ironic" Choices?

The Big Picture | Barry Rithholtz | Posted 10.12.2009 | Business

Read More: Oliver Williamson, Nobel Peace Prize, Elinor Ostrom, Eugene Fama, Behavioral Economics, Business News

The odds favorite to win the Nobel, Eugene Fama, lost the prize to two other Americans, Elinor Ostrom and Oliver Williamson. Ostrom & Williamson stud...

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Shahien Nasiripour

Mortgage Loan Modification: More Offers Extended, Fewer Homeowners Accepting -- Are Homeowners Losing Hope?

HuffingtonPost.com | Shahien Nasiripour | Posted 10.09.2009 | Business

Read More: Mortgages, Treasury Department, Loan Modifications, Mortgage Modification, Making Home Affordable, Mortgage Servicers, Behavioral Economics, Home Affordable Modification, Mortgage Crisis, Financial Crisis, Obama Administration, Homeowners, Business News

While the Obama administration and reporters trumpet the fact that the administration is about a month early in reaching its stated goal of modifying ...

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Web of Change '09

Kety Esquivel | Posted 10.07.2009 | Technology

Read More: Design Strategy, Behavioral Economics, Web of Change, Citizen Engagement, Tech-Conferences, Organizational Transformation, Technology, Storytelling, Technology News
Kety Esquivel

Some of the questions that we explored at the Web of Change conference were: What defines the culture of New Media/Web 2.0? How has it started to define the culture of the 'real' world?

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"The Endowment Effect": What Behavioral Economists Get Wrong

businessinsider.com | John Carney|Oct. 5, 2009, 8:58 AM |13 | Posted 10.05.2009 | Business

Read More: Endowent Effect, Economics, Behavioral Economics, Business News

Despite what numerous experiments by behavioral economists seem to show, people do not magically over-value stuff they just happen to already own. Wh...

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Obama's Retirement Plan Needs More Nerve

Eric Schurenberg | Posted 11.10.2009 | Business

Read More: 401(K), Retirement Plans, Barack Obama, Behavioral Economics, Income Tax, Ira, Cigarettes, Smoking, Economics, Behavior, Campaign Finance, Savings Bonds, Retirement Account, Contribution, Business News
Eric Schurenberg

The president announced a handful of new initiatives designed to make it easier for American workers to save more for retirement, that makes use of behavioral economics.

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Hitler's Testicles and Palin's Death Panels

Peter A. Ubel | Posted 09.19.2009 | Politics

Read More: Health Care Reform, Adolf Hitler, Death Panels, Behavioral Economics, Sarah Palin, Politics News
Peter A. Ubel

Having heard Palin's rumor countless times now, casual observers of politics (a.k.a. the majority of the American public) will come to believe that the rumor is true.

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Fidelity (Accidentally) Makes the Case Against the 401(k)

Eric Schurenberg | Posted 09.18.2009 | Business

Read More: 401(K), Fidelity Investments, Retirement Plans, Investment Company Institute, Nathan Hale, Behavioral Economics, Business News
Eric Schurenberg

It's not a lack of financial literacy that makes a majority of 20-year-olds not participate in a 401(k). It's human nature.

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What to Do if You Missed the Rally

Eric Schurenberg | Posted 08.31.2009 | Business

Read More: American Association of Individual Investors, Behavioral Economics, Jeremy Grantham, Jill Schlesinger, Conrad De Aenlle, CBSMoneyWatch.Com, The Early Show, Allan Roth, Stock Market Rally, Investment Advice, Business News
Eric Schurenberg

If you're still hiding out in the money market funds you raised during the crash, it's less important what kinds of stocks you buy than that you return to a reasonable, post-panic strategy.

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If Not Health Care Reform...

Harry Moroz | Posted 08.24.2009 | Politics

Read More: Behavioral Economics, Ben Bernanke, Jeb Hensarling, President Obama, Richard Posner, Wall Street Journal, Elizabeth Warrenm, Consumer Financial Protection Agency, Financial Services Committee, Politics News
Harry Moroz

The Obama administration is currently losing its argument for the CFPA. It is suffering under some of the same criticisms as its health care reform plan: in particular, that choice will be limited by minimum regulatory standards.

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The Evolution of Economics

Dennis Whittle | Posted 08.17.2009 | Business

Read More: Globalgiving, The Economist, Economics, Rational Expectations, Behavioral Economics, Business News
Dennis Whittle

Behavioral economics has been successful at exposing the fallacies of rational expectations, but it has not succeeded in creating a new framework.

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Why Driving Makes Us Angry, Bitter and Fearful

Philip N. Cohen | Posted 08.06.2009 | Living

Read More: Environment, Traffic, Cars, Psychology, Sociology, Global Warming, Behavioral Economics, Living News
Philip N. Cohen

The constant danger of accidents heightens our emotional responses to other drivers, and directs our anger and bitterness towards individuals around us instead of towards a traffic-based society.

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Tiger Woods and Health Care Reform

Peter A. Ubel | Posted 07.24.2009 | Politics

Read More: Obama, Golf, Healthcare Reform, Behavioral Economics, Clinton Health Care Plan, Health Care, Politics News
Peter A. Ubel

The Obama administration is steeped with people knowledgeable about behavioral economics, who hope to keep the public from slipping into a state of loss aversion.

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The Supreme Court, Empathy, and the Science of Decision Making

Kent Greenfield | Posted 06.25.2009 | Politics

Read More: Supreme Court, Supreme Court Justices, Empathy, Decision-Making, Behavioral Economics, David Souter Replacement, David Souter, Death Penalty, Diversity, Politics News
Kent Greenfield

In such a homogeneous group as our Supreme Court, a Justice's intellectual ability to appreciate the situation of someone from a different background or in a different situation is essential.

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In Defense of "Inefficiency"

Barry Schwartz | Posted 04.16.2009 | Business

Read More: Financial Crisis, Behavioral Economics, Business News
Barry Schwartz

Financial transactions are so far removed from the material entities that underlie them that transactions can occur with lightening speed, with nothing to slow them down.

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What Work Is and What It Can Be

Barry Schwartz | Posted 04.09.2009 | Business

Read More: Remoralizing Work, Financial Crisis, Motivation, Behavioral Economics, Business News
Barry Schwartz

I think it's worth keeping the distinction between "working for money" and "working only for money" in mind as we contemplate the current collapse of the world financial system.

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