A snapshot of Nobel economics winner Richard Thaler

NAME: Richard Thaler

BIRTHDATE: September 12, 1945.

BIRTHPLACE: East Orange, New Jersey.

EDUCATION: Bachelors, Case Western Reserve University, 1967; masters (1970) and Ph.D. (1974), University of Rochester

CURRENT JOB: Professor of behavioral science and economics, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business

ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Considered one of the founders of behavioral economics, which studies how human behavior confounds economic models that assume people always act in their own self-interest.

AWAY FROM THE OFFICE: A fan of the Chicago Cubs

QUOTE: "I try to teach people to make fewer mistakes. But in designing economic policies, we need to take full account of the fact that people are busy, they're absent-minded, they're lazy and that we should try to make things as easy for them as possible."