Chicago economist wins Nobel prize

Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago won the Nobel Prize in economics Monday for research showing people’s financial choices often don’t follow rational economic theory. His work brought greater understanding of the psychology of economics, Swedish Academy of Sciences Secretary-General Goran Hansson said. Thaler is considered a founding father of behavioral economics, a field that shows that, far from being the rational decision-makers described in economic theory, people often make choices that don’t serve their best interests such as refusing to cut their losses when their investments plunge. The Nobel committee said Thaler provided a “more realistic analysis of how people think and behave when making economic decisions.”