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| Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness | 
 enlarge | Authors: Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein
Publisher: Yale University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy New: $16.19
You Save: $9.81 (38%)
New (39) Used (9) from $16.19
Avg. Customer Rating:  48 reviews
Sales Rank: 341
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 293
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6 x 1.2
ISBN: 0300122233
Dewey Decimal Number: 330.019
EAN: 9780300122237
ASIN: 0300122233
Publication Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand New, Perfect Condition, Please allow 4-14 business days for delivery. 100% Money Back Guarantee, Over 1,000,000 customers served.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Please enter a title for your review August 1, 2008
4 out of 34 found this review helpful
so yeah i did what they said on pg 17-18 and measured the dimensions of the tabletop diagrams. the two tabletops on pg 17 measure 5.25mm by 2.5mm and 5.5mm by 2.2mm respectively. A smaller difference that the naked eye suggests, but a difference nonetheless. Then on pg 18 we're presented with a different diagram of two identical tabletops, 2.4mm by 5.4mm (or thereabouts, the sides aren't all even in any of the diagrams) and told these tabletops have the same dimensions as those on pg 17, thus proving they were identical all along. wtf?
 Economics Breaks Free from 18th Century Psychology July 13, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Milton Friedman famously wrote that economic models should be judged by their ability to predict and explain, not the realism of their assumptions. Neoclassical microeconomics has long used that argument to defend itself from criticisms of its unrealistic assumptions. But Thaler, Sunstein and many others are amassing a large body of evidence that shows, in many important cases, that neoclassical microeconomics does not predict very well. In so doing, they are liberating economics from the straitjacket of outdated psychology.
In addition to economists, policy wonks should read the book for its clever, "libertarian paternalism" approach to policy that transcends the tired left-right dichotomy. Thaler and Sunstein present many VERY low-cost ideas that could result in major improvements in people's lives.
Heterodox economists of the old-institutionalist variety should also read the book, as it provides evidence for things like the power of emulation and inertia.
 Great theory, boring examples August 19, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The book initially starts out very interesting in its theory. Once it starts moving on into its sections on how their theory could improve the different parts of our lives, to include money, health, and education, it just becomes very dull. For example, they go in depth into how to improve social security using in depth examples, when they could have gotten to the point. I beleive most of the book was written to fill enough pages to publish. The attempts at humor in this book are all directed at "econs", and is not quite as entertaining to the rest of us as it is to the authors. The stars are given only because of the first part of the book,which explains choice architecture. The rest of the book is given a one star, it was not worth reading beyond part 1.
 Pretty Lame August 25, 2008
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
The book is full of warm and fuzzy utter nonsense. Such as: If you make the vegetables easier to get to, and the junk food more difficult to reach in the school lunch line, the kids will switch to vegetables. That's BS. The average kid will go for the Twinkies and milk shakes no matter how difficult they are to get to.
Not enough for a book July 31, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I agree with other reviewers that the topic, though interesting, does not warrant book-length treatment.
I also think the authors fudge the definition of "nudge." For instance, in the last section of "12 nudges," they mention Automatic Tax Returns for those who don't itemize deductions. Purportedly, such automatic filing will save tax filers millions of hours of time a year. Probably a good idea, but how is making something automatic, in effect reducing choice, a libertarian nudge? And really, how is it different now from the current choice architecture, in which filing is mandated anyway? Similarly, while I enjoyed the idea of separating "marriage" and "civil union" and I think it might make good public policy, I don't really see how it fits into the idea of "nudging." This complaint goes hand in hand with my first one, which is that, in order to come up with enough material to make a book, they had to really stretch on some of the nudges.
Finally, and maybe I'm being nit-picky, but I was driven crazy by the amount of parenthetical phrases. It seems, especially in the first half, that every other sentence had something or other in parentheses, most of which in my opinion either could be removed or didn't belong in parentheses in the first place. It really made parts hard to read.
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