Richard Thaler and Behavioral Economics - 2017 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences

Abstract

This lecture discusses the recent development of behavioral economics and highlights Richard Thaler’s pioneering contributions to the early development of the literature. The lecture also illustrates how the behavioral economics deals with irrational, but predictably irrational, human and helps generate useful policy suggestions to improve social welfare.

About the speaker

Prof. Lim Wooyoung obtained his MA and PhD, both in Economics, from University of Pittsburgh in 2006 and in 2010 respectively. He then joined The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) and is currently an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics. He is also the Associate Director of the Center for Experimental Business Research at HKUST.

Prof. Lim’s research field includes game theory and experimental economics. He mainly works on theoretical and experimental studies of various games such as coordination, communication, bargaining, contest, auction, public good provision etc. He published numerous papers in international journals and a majority of them in the top journal of his field, Games and Economic Behavior. He is also on the editorial board of the Korean Economic Review and is the External Research Fellow at Sogang University and Seoul National University.

In 2017, Prof Lim was awarded the KAEA Young Scholar Award by the Korea-America Economic Association.