Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events

From Nobel Prize-winning economist and Yale School of Management professor Robert Shiller, a groundbreaking account of how stories help drive economic events, and why financial panic can spread like wildfire.

The stories people tell—whether about economic confidence or panic, housing booms, the American dream, or Bitcoin—actually affect economic outcomes. These ideas can go viral and move markets but, despite their obvious importance, most economists have paid little attention to them. 

In this webinar, Professor Shiller shares why they should be taken seriously. Learn how the use of “Narrative Economics” can improve our ability to predict, prepare for, and lessen the damage of financial crises, recessions, depressions, and other major economic events.

Professor Shiller’s research exemplifies the principled inquiry of  Yale SOM’s MBA for Executives Program, which combines the rigor of an integrated core curriculum and leadership development program with advanced study in a chosen area at the nexus of business and society: asset management, healthcare, or sustainability.

If you would like to learn more about the MBA for Executives Program, we invite you to sign up to attend an upcoming virtual event.

Robert J. Shiller is Sterling Professor of Economics, Department of Economics  and Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, and Professor of Finance and Fellow at the International Center for Finance, Yale School of Management. He received his B.A. from the University of Michigan in 1967 and his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1972. He has written on financial markets, financial innovation, behavioral economics, macroeconomics, real estate, statistical methods, and on public attitudes, opinions, and moral judgments regarding markets. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences jointly with Eugene Fama and Lars Peter Hansen in 2013. He served as Vice President of the American Economic Association, 2005 and President of the Eastern Economic Association, 2006-07. He was elected President of the American Economic Association for 2016.