Richard Thaler & Cass Sunstein

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein are American academics whose book Nudge introduced the concept of libertarian paternalism and influenced public policy worldwide.

Nudge, first published in 2008 and significantly updated in a 2021 edition, is one of the most influential policy books of the past two decades. Richard Thaler (behavioral economist, Nobel laureate) and Cass Sunstein (legal scholar, former Obama regulatory czar) argue that governments and institutions can improve human decision-making not through mandates or bans but through carefully designed “choice architectures” — defaults, orderings, and framings that make better choices easier without restricting freedom. The classic example is enrolling employees in retirement savings by default rather than requiring them to opt in.

The book is accessibly written and full of compelling real-world examples, from organ donation registries to school cafeteria layouts. Its central insight — that how choices are presented shapes what people choose — is both scientifically well-grounded and practically actionable. Nudge had measurable impact on government policy in the UK, US, and elsewhere, spawning “nudge units” in multiple governments.

The criticism of the nudge approach has come from both left and right. Some argue it is too permissive — allowing harmful defaults to persist — while others raise concerns about technocratic manipulation of public behavior without democratic accountability. These are legitimate debates. Nudge deserves to be read, but ideally alongside its critics, who have forced a productive conversation about the ethics and limits of behavioral policy design.