- Bruce Rich
- Environmental Forum
- January-February, 2018
- p. 23
The award of the 2017 Nobel Prize for economics to Richard Thaler highlights the recognition that human behavior is more complex and irrational than the assumptions of conventional, still prevalent economic models. Psychologist Daniel Kahneman, who received the economics Nobel in 2002, described his astonishment that “our two disciplines seemed to be studying different species, which . . . Richard Thaler later dubbed Econs and Humans.” This debate is of extraordinary importance for the future of various national and international environmental programs. Many may rely on assumptions that are questionable, and in some cases perverse in their environmental consequences.
