Letters: Thaler's contribution

The book, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness, which Thaler co-authored with Cass R Sunstein in 2008, will now attract more readers

With reference to the editorial, “A Nobel ‘nudge’” (October 10), awarding Richard Thaler the Economics Nobel is, in a way, an effort to bring back the focus of economic research on its relevance to the masses. In recent times, economics and economists have come into disrepute because of relying on jargon and an undeclared competition among their ilk on who will speak last on inflation, gross domestic product and economic growth. The ultimate objective of economic research — bringing the most benefit to the largest number of people with available resources — was forgotten.

The book, Nudge: Improving Decisions about