George A. Akerlof Livres

Provides an important way to understand human behavior, revealing how our identities - and not just economic incentives - influence our decisions. This title explains how our conception of who we are and who we want to be may shape our economic lives more than any other factor, affecting how hard we work, and how we learn, spend, and save.

Acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller argue for the essential role of government in restoring economic confidence in the wake of the global financial crisis. They highlight how psychological forces, termed "animal spirits," have jeopardized national wealth, from blind faith in rising housing prices to declining trust in capital markets. Challenging traditional economic wisdom, Akerlof and Shiller propose a transformative vision that emphasizes the necessity of an active government role in economic policymaking. They revive the concept of animal spirits, originally introduced by John Maynard Keynes, to explain the psychological factors that contributed to the Great Depression and subsequent recovery. Akerlof and Shiller contend that managing these forces requires government intervention, as laissez-faire approaches are insufficient. They explore the pervasive impacts of animal spirits—such as confidence, fear, bad faith, and fairness—on contemporary economic life, critiquing Reaganomics, Thatcherism, and the rational expectations revolution for overlooking these dynamics. This work provides a roadmap for addressing current financial challenges, illustrating how leaders can effectively channel the powerful psychological forces influencing today's global economy.

Ever since Adam Smith, the central teaching of economics has been that free markets provide us with material well-being, as if by an invisible hand. In Phishing for Phools, Nobel Prize-winning economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller deliver a fundamental challenge to this insight, arguing that markets harm as well as help us. As long as there is profit to be made, sellers will systematically exploit our psychological weaknesses and our ignorance through manipulation and deception. Rather than being essentially benign and always creating the greater good, markets are inherently filled with tricks and traps and will "phish" us as "phools." Phishing for Phools therefore strikes a radically new direction in economics, based on the intuitive idea that markets both give and take away. Akerlof and Shiller bring this idea to life through dozens of stories that show how phishing affects everyone, in almost every walk of life. We spend our money up to the limit, and then worry about how to pay the next month's bills. The financial system soars, then crashes. We are attracted, more than we know, by advertising. Our political system is distorted by money. We pay too much for gym memberships, cars, houses, and credit cards. Drug companies ingeniously market pharmaceuticals that do us little good, and sometimes are downright dangerous. Phishing for Phools explores the central role of manipulation and deception in fascinating detail in each of these areas and many more. It thereby explains a paradox: why, at a time when we are better off than ever before in history, all too many of us are leading lives of quiet desperation. At the same time, the book tells stories of individuals who have stood against economic trickery--and how it can be reduced through greater knowledge, reform, and regulation

This work bridges a critical gap in the social sciences. It brings identity and norms to economics. People's notions of what is proper, and what is forbidden, and for whom, are fundamental to how hard they work, and how they learn, spend, and save.

Akerlof and Shiller argue that markets harm as well as help us. As long as there is profit to be made, sellers will systematically exploit our psychological weaknesses and our ignorance through manipulation and deception. Based on the intuitive idea that markets both give and take away, they show how phishing affects everyone, in almost every walk of life. We spend our money up to the limit, and then worry about how to pay the next month's bills. The financial system soars, then crashes. In doing so they explain a paradox: why, at a time when we are better off than ever before in history, all too many of us are leading lives of quiet desperation.

Seit Adam Smith ist eine der zentralen Thesen der Wirtschaftswissenschaften, dass freie Märkte und freier Wettbewerb die besten Voraussetzungen für allgemeinen Wohlstand sind. Die Wirtschaftsnobelpreisträger George Akerlof und Robert Shiller argumentieren dagegen, dass Märkte nicht von sich aus gutartig sind und sich auch nicht immer die besten Produkte durchsetzen. Die Autoren behandeln in diesem Buch erstmals die zentrale Rolle von Manipulation und Täuschung in der Wirtschaft. Anhand von zahlreichen Fallbeispielen zeigen sie, wie wir verleitet werden, mehr Geld auszugeben, als wir haben; wie wir von Werbung stärker beeinflusst werden, als wir glauben; warum wir oft zu viel bezahlen und wie massiv die Politik durch Wirtschaft beeinflusst wird.