Cass Sunstein (b. 1954)

Who They Were

Cass Sunstein (born 1954) is an American legal scholar rather than an economist, best known in economics for co-authoring Nudge (2008) with Richard Thaler. A prolific writer on law, regulation, and public policy, he has spent his career at leading American law schools and is among the most cited legal academics of his generation. His work connects behavioural research on how people actually make decisions with the design of laws and government programmes. In the Obama administration he ran the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, where he worked to translate choice-architecture ideas into regulatory practice, applying insights about defaults and framing to the way federal rules present choices to citizens. He has continued to write widely on behavioural science, risk, and the design of institutions.

Key Contributions

Sunstein's principal contribution to economics is as co-author, with Richard Thaler, of the ideas popularised in Nudge (2008). The book argued that choice architecture — the way options are structured and presented — predictably shapes the decisions people make, and that thoughtful defaults and framing can steer behaviour toward better outcomes while preserving individual freedom of choice. Thaler and Sunstein called this approach libertarian paternalism, and it became one of the most influential frameworks linking behavioural research to public policy. Sunstein's wider scholarship extends these themes across regulation, risk assessment, and administrative law, and his later government service put choice-architecture ideas to work in the drafting and review of federal regulation. Much of his writing concerns how institutions can improve decisions without resorting to mandates or bans.

On EconRecall

American legal scholar who co-wrote Nudge with Richard Thaler and carried choice-architecture ideas into US regulation. Play the games that feature Cass Sunstein: