RICHARD H. THALER
Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago
1101 E. 58th St.
Chicago IL 60637
312-702-5208
Fax: 312-702-0458
E-mail: thaler@gsb.uchicago.edu
PERSONAL DATA
Born September 12, 1945 in East Orange, New Jersey
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of Rochester, 1974
M.A. University of Rochester, 1970
B.A. Case Western Reserve University, 1967
Dissertation Title: "The Value of Saving A Life: A Market Estimate" (Supervisor:
Sherwin Rosen)
CURRENT POSITIONS
Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics, and Director of
the Center for Decision Research, Graduate School of Business, University of
Chicago.
Research Associate, National Bureau of Economic Research (co-director -with
Robert Shiller- of the Behavioral Economics Project, funded by the Russell Sage
Foundation)
PRIOR EMPLOYMENT HISTORY
-
January 1988-June 1995: Henrietta Johnson Louis Professor of Economics,
Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell
University and Director, Center for Behavioral
Economics and Decision Research
- Septeber 1994-June 1995: Visiting Professor, Sloan School of Management,
MIT
- January 1993-July 1993: Visiting Scholar, Sloan School of Management, MIT
- September 1991-July 1992: Visiting Scholar, Russell Sage Foundation, New
York, NY
- July 1986-January 1988: Professor of Economics, Johnson Graduate School
of Management.
- August 1984-1985: Visiting Associate Professor, Policy Division, Faculty
of Commerce and Business Administration, The
University of British Columbia.
- July 1980-July 1986: Associate Professor, Johnson Graduate School of
Management, Cornell University.
- September 1978-June 1980: Assistant Professor of Economics and Public
Administration, Graduate School of Business and
Public Administration, Cornell University.
- June 1977-August 1978: Visiting Scholar, National Bureau of Economic
Research - West, Stanford, California.
- Summer 1975: Research Economist, Public Research Institute,
Center for Naval Analyses, Arlington, Virginia.
- September 1974-June 1978: Assistant Professor, Graduate School of
Management, University of Rochester.
- July 1972-June 1975: Program Associate, Rochester-Monroe County
Criminal Justice Pilot City Program, University of
Rochester.
- September 1971-June 1974: Instructor, Graduate School of Management,
University of Rochester.
ADMINISTRATIVE ASSIGNMENTS
- 1995-present: Director, Center for Decision Research, University of Chicago
- 1992-present: Co-director (with Robert Shiller) of NBER project on Behavioral
Economics
- 1989-1995: Director, Center for Behavioral Economics and Decision Research.
- 1981-1983: Associate Director of Cornell's Center for the Study of American
Political Economy.
- 1980-1981: Chairman, Policy Committee (Dean's Faculty Advisory Committee).
- 1975-1977: Chairman of Ph.D. Committee (Director of Doctoral Program),
Graduate School of Management, University of Rochester.
- 1974-1977: Co-ordinator of MBA Program for non-profit sector, Graduate School
of Management, University of Rochester.
RESEARCH GRANTS
-
1993- 1995: National Science Foundation, Economcis and DRMS, "Myopic Loss
Aversion"
- 1992-present: Russell Sage Foundation grant to NBER to fund a series of
meetings on topics in behavior economics. Joint with Robert Shiller
- 1985-1992: "Continued Research in Psychology and Economics," Alfred P.
Sloan Foundation and Russell Sage Foundation.
- 1984-1985: "Research in Psychology and Economics," (Sabbatic leave funding)
Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
- 1983: "Descriptive Choice Models," U.S. Department of the Navy.
- 1976-1977: Principal Investigator for grant from ASPER, Department of Labor,
"An Equalizing Difference Model of Employment."
OTHER PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
- Associate Editor: Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance; Journal of
Business, Journal of Behavioral Decision Making; Journal
of Risk and Uncertainty; Quarterly Journal of Economics.
- National Association Assignments: American Economics Association: Member of
Nominating Committee, 1983. National Research Council:
Ten Year Outlook on Opportunities in the Behavioral
Sciences, member of the working group on information
and decision making. National Academy of Science:
Member of a committee (chaired by Herbert Simon) to
prepare a report to the President's science advisor on
research opportunities in decision making and problem
solving.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
- Quasi-Rational Economics, Russell Sage Foundation, 1991.
- The Winner's Curse: Paradoxes and Anomalies of Economic Life, Free Press,
1991 (Princeton University Press paperback, 1993).
- Advances in Behavioral Finance, editor. Russell Sage Foundation, 1993.
Published Papers
- "The Value of Saving A Life: Evidence From The Labor Market," (with Sherwin
Rosen) in Nester Terleckyj, ed. Household Production and Consumption, National
Bureau of Economic Research, 1975.
- "Design Requirements for Criminal Justice Research and Resource
Management/Planning Systems," (with Jeffrey Lasky) in Proceedings of the
Second International Symposium of Criminal Justice Information and Statistics
Systems, 1976.
- "On Optimal Speed Limits," in Henry Manne and Roger Miller, eds. Auto Safety
Regulation: The Cure or the Problem? 1976.
- "Some Results of Research on the Value of Saving Lives," (with Sherwin Rosen)
in Proceedings of a Workshop on the Measure of Intangible Environmental
Impacts, Electric Power Institute, 1977.
- "An Econometric Analysis of Property Crime: Interaction Between Police and
Criminals," Journal of Public Economics, 1977.
- "A Note on the Value of Crime Control: Evidence from the Property Market,"
Journal of Urban Economics, 1978.
- "Sticky Wages and Implicit Contracts: A Transactional Approach," (with David
Mayers) Economic Inquiry, October 1979.
- "Discounting with Fiscal Constraints: Why Discounting is Always Right," Defense
Management Journal, October 1979.
- "Toward A Positive Theory of Consumer Choice," Journal of Economic Behavior
and Organization, 1980, reprinted in Breit and Hochman, eds. Readings in
Microeconomics, 3rd edition, 1985, and in Howard Kunreuther, ed. Risk: A
Seminar Series, IIASA, 1981.
- "Interpreting a Rationality in Hierarchical Games," (with H.M. Shefrin), Economic
Letters, 1980.
- "Judgment and Decision Making Under Uncertainty: What Economists Can Learn
from Psychology," Risk Analysis in Agriculture: Research and Educational
Developments, Proceedings of a seminar sponsored by the Western Regional
Research Project W-149, Tucson, Arizona, June 1980.
- "An Economic Theory of Self-Control," (with H.M. Shefrin) Journal of Political
Economy, April 1981.
- "Maximization and Self-Control," a commentary on "Maximization Theory in
Behavioral Psychology," by Rachlin, Battalio, Kagel and Green, in The Behavioral
and Brain Sciences, 1981.
- "Some Empirical Evidence on Dynamic Inconsistency," Economic Letters, 1981.
- "Public Policy Toward Life Saving: Should Consumer Preferences Rule?" (with
William Gould), Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, 1982.
- "Precommitment and the Value of a Life," in Michael Jones-Lee, ed. The Value of
Life and Safety, North-Holland Press, 1982.
- "Transaction Utility Theory," Proceedings of the Association for Consumer
Research Conference, San Francisco, 1983.
- "Illusions, Mirages, and Public Policy," Public Interest, Fall 1983, reprinted in Hal
Arkes and Kenneth Hammond, eds. Judgment and Decision Making: An
Interdisciplinary Reader, Cambridge University Press, 1986, and in V.T. Covello
et al., eds. Environmental Impact, Assessment, Technology Assessment and
Risk Analysis, NATO ASI Series, 1983.
- "An Economic Analysis of Multiyear Procurement," (with Kathy Utgoff) in Gerald
R. McNichols, ed. Operations Research in Cost Analysis, Operations Research
Society of America, 1984.
- "Mental Accounting and Consumer Choice," Marketing Science, 1985.
- "Does the Stock Market Overreact?" (with Werner F. M. De Bondt), Journal of
Finance, 1985.
- "The Relevance of Quasi Rationality in Competitive Markets," (with Thomas
Russell), American Economic Review, 1985.
- "Fairness and the Assumptions of Economics," (with Daniel Kahneman and Jack
Knetsch), Journal of Business, 1986.
- "The Psychology and Economics Conference Handbook," (commentary on
papers by H. Simon, H. Einhorn and R. Hogarth, and A. Tversky and D.
Kahneman), Journal of Business, 1986.
- "Fairness as a Constraint on Profit-Seeking: Entitlements in the Market," (with
Daniel Kahneman and Jack Knetsch), American Economic Review, 1986.
- "Further Evidence on Investor Overreaction and Stock Market Seasonality," (with
Werner F. M. DeBondt), Journal of Finance, 1987.
- "The Psychology of Choice and the Assumptions of Economics," in Alvin Roth,
ed. Laboratory Experiments in Economics: Six Points of View, Cambridge
University Press, 1987.
- "The Behavioral Life-Cycle Hypothesis" (with H. M. Shefrin) Economic Inquiry,
1988.
- "Gambling with the House Money and Trying to Break Even: The Effects of Prior
Outcomes in Risky Choice" (with Eric Johnson), Management Science, June
1990.
- "Do Security Analysts Overreact?" (with Werner De Bondt) American Economic
Review, May 1990
- "Experimental Tests of the Endowment Effect and the Coase Theorem" (with
Daniel Kahneman and Jack Knetsch) Journal of Political Economy, December
1990. Reprinted in: Recent Developments in Experimental Economics, John Hey
and Graham Loomes, ed. 1992.
- "Investor Sentiment and the Closed-end Fund Puzzle," with Charles Lee and
Andrei Shleifer. Journal of Finance, March 1991.
- "Economic Analysis and the Psychology of Utility: Applications to Compensation
Policy" (with Daniel Kahneman) American Economic Review, 81, May 1991, 341-346.
- "Window Dressing by Pension Fund Managers," (with Josef Lakonishok, Andrei
Shleifer, and Robert Vishny) American Economic Review, 81, May 1991, 227-231.
- "How to Get Real People to Save," in Marvin Kosters, ed. Personal Savings,
Consumption, and Tax Policy, American Enterprise Institute: Washington D.C.,
1992.
- "Saving and Mental Accounting," in George Loewenstein and Jon Elster, Choices
over Time, Russell Sage Foundation, 1992.
- "Yes, Discounts on Closed-End Funds Are a Sentiment Index," and "Summing
Up," (replies to Chen, Kan and Miller) (with N. Chopra, C. Lee, and A. Shleifer)
Journal of Finance, June 1993.
- "Psychology and Savings Policies" American Economic Review, May 1994.
- "College and University Endowment Funds,: Why Not 100% Equities," (with J.
Peter Williamson) Journal of Portfolio Management, Fall 1994.
- "Financial Decision Making in Markets and Firms," (with Werner F. M. De Bondt)
in R. Jarrow, V Maksimovic, and W. T. Ziemba (eds.) Finance, Series of
Handbooks in Operations Research and Management Science, Elsevier-North
Holland, 1995.
- "Myopic Loss Aversion and the Equity Premium Puzzle," (with Shlomo Benartzi)
Quarterly Journal of Economics February, 1995
- "Price Reactions to Dividend Initiations and Omissions: Overreaction or Drift?
(with Roni Michaely and Kent Womack) Journal of Finance June, 1995.
- "How to Evaluate Savings Programs: Discussion of Papke, Peterson and
Poterba" in Papers in the Economics of Aging edited by David A. Wise (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press) 1995.
- "Doing Economics without Homo Economicus" in Exploring the Foundations of Research in Economics: How Should Economists Do Economics? edited by Steven
G. Medema and Warren J. Samuels.
- "Caveat Compounder: A Warning about Using the CRSP Equally Weighted Index to Compute Long-Run Excess Returns" (with Linda Canina, Roni Michaely, and
Kent Womack) forthcoming, Journal of Finance, 1997.
- "Irving Fisher: Modern Behavioral Economist" forthcoming, American Economic
Review, May 1997.
- "The Effect of Myopia and Loss Aversion on Risk Taking: An Experimental Test"
(with Amos Tversky, Daniel Kahneman, and Alan Schwartz) forthcoming, Quarterly Journal of Economics, May 1997.
- "Labor Supply of New York City Cab Drivers: One Day at a Time," (with Colin Camerer, Linda Babcock, and George Loewenstein) forthcoming, Quarterly Journal
of Economics, May 1997.
- "Anomalies" Articles Published in the Journal of Economic Perspectives
First Series:
-
"Seasonal Movements in Security Prices I: The January Effect," (Summer
1987).
- "Seasonal Movements in Security Prices II: Weekends, Holidays, Turn of
the Month and Intra-day Effects," (Fall 1987).
- "The Winners Curse," (Winter 1988).
- "Parimutual Betting Markets: Racetracks and Lotteries," with William
Ziemba (Spring 1988).
- "Cooperation," with Robyn Dawes (Summer 1988).
- "The Ultimatum Game," (Fall 1988).
- "A Mean Reverting Walk Down Wall Street," with Werner De Bondt
(Winter 1989).
- "Interindustry Wage Differentials," (Spring 1989).
- "Intertemporal Choice," with George Loewenstein (Fall 1989).
- "Saving, Fungibility, and Mental Accounts," (Winter 1990).
- "Preference Reversals," with Amos Tversky (Spring 1990).
- "Foreign Exchange," (with Ken Froot) (Summer 1990).
- "Closed End Mutual Funds," (with Charles Lee and Andrei Shleifer) (Fall
1990).
- "The Endowment Effect, Loss Aversion, and Status Quo Bias," (with Daniel
Kahneman and Jack Knetsch) Winter 1991).
Second Series:
-
"More Dictator and Ultimatum Games" (with Colin Camerer) Summer 1995
- "The Flypaper Effect" (with James Hines) Winter 1995
- "The Equity Premium Puzzle" (with Jeremy Siegel) forthcoming 1997.