Economist Channel

Derek Parfit's 1984 work, Reasons and Persons, is one of the most important works on moral philosophy. It put forward an account of ethical decision making rooted in a philosophical conception of rationality, identity, and time. It has had a substantial impact on discussions of morals and ethics across a wide range of domains. It is also highly relevant...

The Scottish Enlightenment is a historical antecedent to the development of a wide range of modern thought. Ashraf, Camerer and Loewenstein's "Adam Smith, Behavioral Economist" provides an account of the ideas of one of the era's main figures. David Hume also anticipates many of the key ideas in modern behavioural economics. See below for a particularly...

Derek Parfit's speech at the Oxford Union last year is linked below. Parfit's 1984 "Reasons and Persons" is a magnificent work that I will summarise here at a later stage. It is widely regarded as one of the most important works on moral philosophy, and it has substantial relevance to a number of questions in behavioural economics. His other major...

I compiled this blogpost to aid discussion with colleagues and students about the best resources for improving writing skills and process.  This list is not intended to be exhaustive nor do I recommend each of the works listed. The usefulness of the various resources will differ across disciplines. Many of the resources relate to basic rules of...

Hope 2016 is starting well! Those who are considering applying for our MSc programme please see details here. Our events for the first half of 2016 are available to view on the tab above. Those thinking of conducting a PhD with us from September 2016 should get in touch as soon as possible.1. Adair Turner's "Between Debt and the Devil: Money, Credit...

Dilip Soman's "The Last Mile: Creating Social and Economic Value from Behavioral Insights" is a welcome addition to the emerging volume of books on behavioural science aimed at a general audience. The book builds on the Nudge and Choice Architecture ideas of Sunstein and Thaler by providing a detailed account of the concepts, experimental methods and...

This is a guest post from Dr. Christian Schubert.Let’s assume that in country X ‘nudges’ are being implemented. As you may recall, these are the innovative policy tools suggested, most prominently, by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein in their book Nudge (Thaler and Sunstein 2008). Nudges have been shown to impact people’s behaviour without changing...

Richard Thaler's "Misbehaving: the Making of Behavioural Economics" is partly an autobiography and partly a history of the development of behavioural economics. It is split into 8 parts: (i) Beginnings 1970-78 details his early interest in the psychology of decision making discussing his work on the statistical value of life and how this led to...