Robert J. Shiller
Robert J. Shiller
Robert James "Bob" Shiller is an American Nobel Laureate, economist, academic, and best-selling author. He currently serves as a Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University and is a fellow at the Yale School of Management's International Center for Finance. Shiller has been a research associate of the National Bureau of Economic Researchsince 1980, was vice president of the American Economic Association in 2005, and president of the Eastern Economic Association for 2006–2007. He is also the co‑founder and chief...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEconomist
Date of Birth29 March 1946
CountryUnited States of America
Robert J. Shiller quotes about
A major boom in real stock prices in the U.S. after 'Black Tuesday' brought them halfway back to 1929 levels by 1930. This was followed by a second crash, another boom from 1932 to 1937, and a third crash. Speculative bubbles do not end like a short story, novel, or play. There is no final denouement that brings all the strands of a narrative into an impressive final conclusion. In the real world, we never know when the story is over.
My very first publication was an estimator - this was a statistical procedure - a kind of invention. My father got a patent and started a business; it wasn't successful, but maybe I have some of him in me.
Liberalism downplays certain of our moral senses: loyalty, authority, and sanctity.
I have argued that we need livelihood insurance, which would protect people against the risk of seeing their skills and expertise no longer needed. Such insurance could be offered by the private sector.
News media stimulate bubbles, since stories about them boost their audience.
In the longer run and for wide-reaching issues, more creative solutions tend to come from imaginative interdisciplinary collaboration.
Physicists have a bias to aspire to be "seers" like Einstein rather than "craftspeople" who do simple and practical research. I have seen that in economics departments. The same must be true to some extent in other departments.
Life's meaning heavily benefits from lifelong bonds.
Marketers know that if people you respect - perhaps laughably including entertainers and athletes - say they like a product, you're more likely to buy.
Each profession has its own toolkit.
Consider our difficulties avoiding junk food and overspending. Such addictions were carefully planned-for by professional marketing teams.
There is more uncertainty than usual about job futures because computers are replacing more and more human intelligence, and globalization is proceeding at an accelerating pace.
My clinical psychologist wife of 40 years has always had a close intellectual influence on me. When I was beginning to talk openly in the economics profession about irrationality in decision-making, I received a lot of criticism. Ginny would support my views and remind me that a whole other profession - psychology - studies people's irrational sides.
As I write in 2012 we certainly do not believe that it is over yet, and the worst may be yet to come. Efforts by governments to solve the underlying problems responsible for the crisis have still not gotten very far, and the 'stress tests' that governments have used to encourage optimism about our financial institutions were of questionable thoroughness.