Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism

From acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller, the case for why government is needed to restore confidence in the economy

The global financial crisis has made it painfully clear that powerful psychological forces are imperiling the wealth of nations today. From blind faith in ever-rising housing prices to plummeting confidence in capital markets, "animal spirits" are driving financial events worldwide. In this book, acclaimed economists George Akerlof and Robert Shiller challenge the economic wisdom that got us into this mess, and put forward a bold new vision that will transform economics and restore prosperity.

Akerlof and Shiller reassert the necessity of an active government role in economic policymaking by recovering the idea of animal spirits, a term John Maynard Keynes used to describe the gloom and despondence that led to the Great Depression and the changing psychology that accompanied recovery. Like Keynes, Akerlof and Shiller know that managing these animal spirits requires the steady hand of government--simply allowing markets to work won't do it. In rebuilding the case for a more robust, behaviorally informed Keynesianism, they detail the most pervasive effects of animal spirits in contemporary economic life--such as confidence, fear, bad faith, corruption, a concern for fairness, and the stories we tell ourselves about our economic fortunes--and show how Reaganomics, Thatcherism, and the rational expectations revolution failed to account for them.

Animal Spirits offers a road map for reversing the financial misfortunes besetting us today. Read it and learn how leaders can channel animal spirits--the powerful forces of human psychology that are afoot in the world economy today.

Author: George A. Akerlof, Robert J. Shiller
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 02/18/2009
Pages: 248
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.09lbs
Size: 9.48h x 6.34w x 0.93d
ISBN: 9780691142333


Award: Axiom Business Book Awards - Silver Medal Winner


Review Citation(s):
New York Times Book Review 04/19/2009 pg. 18
New York Times Book Review 04/26/2009 pg. 22
Harvard Business Review 05/01/2009 pg. 28
New York Review of Books 05/28/0009 pg. 42
Science 05/15/2009 pg. 883
Choice 07/01/2009
London Review of Books 11/19/2009 pg. 13

About the Author
George A. Akerlof is the Daniel E. Koshland Sr. Distinguished Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. He was awarded the 2001 Nobel Prize in economics. Robert J. Shiller is the best-selling author of Irrational Exuberance and The Subprime Solution (both Princeton). He is the Arthur M. Okun Professor of Economics at Yale University.