Robert B. Menschel Economics Symposium | Council on Foreign Relations

Keynote Session: A Conversation With Richard H. Thaler

Richard Thaler will discuss how the coronavirus pandemic has altered human behavior and economic choices, as well as how behavioral economics can inform public health policy to incentivize people to socially distance, wear masks, and accept a vaccine.

Speaker

Richard H. Thaler
Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics, University of Chicago Booth School of Business; Coauthor, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness; 2017 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences Recipient

Presider

Eduardo Porter
Economics Reporter, New York Times; CFR Member

Transcript

PORTER: Hi, everybody. Welcome to today’s Council on Foreign Relations virtual Robert B. Menschel Economic Symposium with keynote speaker Professor Richard Thaler. I’m Eduardo Porter. I’m an economics reporter at the New York Times, and I’ll be presiding over today’s discussion. This symposium is presented by the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies, and it’s made possible through the generous support of Robert B. Menschel. Now, I don’t think I need to introduce Professor Thaler to you. I’ll just throw in there, as most of you probably know that he won the Nobel Prize for economics. And he is the author of the very, very popular book Nudge, about how to nudge people’s behavior in a way that we might want for policy reasons. Hi, Professor Thaler, I’m really happy that you’re here with us.

THALER: Thanks, Eduardo. Happy to see you. Sort of.

PORTER: Sort of right? So listen, let me the kind of like, the subject that we’re trying to get our heads around is, you know, how we are dealing with this pandemic? What things might we do better? What have we done well, or have we fallen a bit short? And I wanted to start...

Session Two: Economic Behavior in a Pandemic

Panelists will discuss how the pandemic has altered consumer decision-making and economic behavior, how these trends affect the U.S. and global economies, and how policymakers can use behavioral economics to address these shifts.

Speakers

Ravi Dhar
George Rogers Clark Professor of Management and Marketing, Director of the Center for Customer Insights, and Professor of Psychology, Yale University
Wendy Edelberg
Director, The Hamilton Project and Senior Fellow, Economic Studies, Brookings Institution; Former Chief Economist, Congressional Budget Office
Fiona Greig
Managing Director and Copresident, JPMorgan Chase Institute

Presider

Terry L. Babcock-Lumish
Executive Secretary, Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation; CFR Member

Transcript

BABCOCK-LUMISH: Welcome everyone to today’s Council on Foreign Relations virtual Robert B. Menschel Economics Symposium session: Economic Behavior in a Pandemic with Ravi Dhar, Wendy Edelberg, and Fiona Greig. I am Terry Babcock-Lumish executive secretary of the Harry S. Truman Scholarship Foundation, and I’ll be presiding over today’s discussion. This symposium presented by the Maurice R. Greenberg Center for Geoeconomic Studies is made possible by the generous support of Robert B. Menschel.

Ravi, let’s go ahead and begin with you. This last year we have all witnessed consumers reacting in ways some might consider curious, we could certainly argue whether they’re rational or irrational, from hoarding toilet paper and Lysol wipes, this thing that they won’t order Corona beer. But let’s go ahead and break it down given your work, I thought it was particularly vivid to learn from you that 75 percent, that’s amazing, 75 percent of consumers have tried a new store, brand, or different way of shopping during the pandemic. Could you perhaps kick us off by providing a snapshot of the ways in which consumer behaviors and choices have changed? Dovetailing on Professor Thaler’s keynote yesterday, we have a remarkable panel assembled to discuss how the...