example, if one objective of government policy is to encourage
individual workers to save more for their retirement, then
presenting the paycheque options in a specific way can
“nudge” people in a particular direction without constraining
their ultimate freedom to make their own choices. This basic
idea is now being explored by many governments for policy
issues that go far beyond employees’ saving decisions.
The ongoing research by behavioural economists forces all
economists to think more carefully about their theories. As a
result of research in this relatively new field of study, economic
theory is improving and economists are gaining a more
thorough understanding of consumer behaviour. In the
meantime, however, most economists continue to view the
simple consumer theory developed in this chapter as useful
because it leads to some straightforward predictions that are
rarely rejected by the data.
For excellent discussions of many interesting economic phenomena, see and Slow by Daniel Kahneman, the winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economics, andThinking Fast
NudgePrize in Economics. by Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, the latter who received the 2017 Nobel