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Behavioural Economists

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Someone recently asked me about books to read on Behavioural Economics and I told him he's lucky because if it was a couple of years back, the subject hasn't exactly attracted that much attention so there's not much books and they're probably pretty hard to find. I thought I'd share with readers of ERPZ who might be keen to explore this blooming area in the field of Economics & Psychology.

Recommending books is a tricky affair because people have a variety of tastes for books; non-fiction books are not as much a social affair as fiction so it isn't always that enjoyable to follow the crowd. Nonetheless, I'm attempting this tricky activity here:

Nudge by Richard Thaler

Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert

Predictably Irrational & The Upside of Irrationality by Dan Ariely

Create Your Own Economy by Tyler Cowen

Now, the fact is that I haven't actually finish all of the books above, but here are my reasons for the recommendations:

Richard Thaler have got his research on behavioural economics cited by lots of different writers of popular economics books and you can be sure that he's an expert on the subject; I've looked through the first chapters of 'Nudge' and while it doesn't exemplify brilliant, engaging writing, the ideas are interesting and implications enormous (which means people should know about them and try to steer them correctly).

I've read Dan Gilbert and watched him speak. He's brilliant.

Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational basically has some fan club and I've watched him speak at TED.

I've read Tyler Cowen's 'Discover Your Inner Economist' and while he keeps distracting readers in his writings, he eventually does bring his points across. And on the way, you would have picked up much other tidbits. So I'm pretty sure his new book would also be an enjoyable read.