How a critic of economics became the discipline’s Nobel-winning best friend

Enthusiasm for Richard Thaler's work on behavioural economics means economists have more influence than ever. But their failures contributed to the financial crisis - and we're being distracted, say Tiago Mata and Jack Wright

The praise is still pouring in for Richard Thaler, winner of the 2017 Sveriges Riksbank prize in economic sciences in memory of Alfred Nobel. The news was described as "wonderful", "well-deserved " and clarifying," and BBC Radio 4's More or Less explained that Thaler is an "amazing economist". All this praise is due because Thaler has shown better than anyone that behavioural economics can be an engine of policy innovation. Thaler has turned failure into success, helping economists thrive during a financial crisis that they had failed to avert.

Thaler is a best-selling author and an entertaining speaker who is never short of an anecdote to explain himself. It has been easy to describe the "endowment effect" - how we overvalue our possessions - or the "problem of self-control" in cartoons or on the radio. But Thaler's insights, named in the award, are not why he is important. His true value lies in the fact that behavioural economics has refashioned economists as designers and evaluators of legislative and regulatory policy.