Officially, Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in Economics because he 'has incorporated psychologically realistic assumptions into analyses of economic decision-making. By exploring the consequences of limited rationality, social preferences, and lack of self-control, he has shown how these human traits systematically affect individual decisions as well as market outcomes'. An interesting thing about this quote is that nudge doesn't get a mention; indeed, it only just about scrapes it into the Academy's official press release . (In the more detailed popular information document it doesn't appear until page 5 of 6.) This is in stark contrast to the popular press: the BBC leads with 'Nudge' economist wins Nobel Prize, the Telegraph leads with 'Nudge' guru wins the Nobel Prize, and so on. To read the papers you would think that Nudge is all there is to it. There is no doubt that Nudge has been a huge success and made Thaler famous (at least
Some random thoughts on game theory, behavioural economics, and human behaviour