Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize for Economics and we found his Indian connection in his praise for the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 currency notes. Thaler had tweeted his appreciation for the note ban on November 8, 2016 - the day it was brought into effect - but that happens only to be a part of the entire picture.
Thaler applauded the banknote demonetisation saying, "This is a policy I have long supported, First step towards cashless and good start on reducing corruption." Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the initiative quoting similar motives.
But Thaler's enthusiasm was absent when he was told about government's decision to issue new currency notes of Rs 2000. "really? Damn," Thaler said in reply to a comment on his abovementioned tweet telling him about the decision to bring Rs 2000 notes. The pink notes were issued as a buffer measure to absorb the disruption caused by demonetisation.
The tweet over demonetisation by the Nobel Prize winner caught the attention of social media after BJP IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya re-tweeted it yesterday when Thaler won the accolade. Although, Thaler's response to issuing Rs 2000 notes being issued after was skipped by Malviya, the comment section on his re-tweet did feature some screenshots of the same.
The Modi government has been facing some serious flak recently, even from its own quarters, for alleged failure of the note ban. Former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha tore into his incumbent successor Arun Jaitley for the demonetisation initiative. "The prime minister claims that he has seen poverty from close quarters. His finance minister is working over-time to make sure that all Indians also see it from equally close quarters," the senior BJP leader wrote in an article. Arun Shourie, another senior BJP leader and a renowned economist, also bashed demonetisation as the single largest money laundering scheme in the world.
The Royal Swedish Academy awarded the Nobel Economics Prize, or the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences, to Richard Thaler for his contribution in the field of behavioural economics. Thaler has worked to show how human emotions dominate economic decisions, rather that principles.
Known for his nudge theory in economics, Thaler is presently working as a Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioural Science and Economics at the Chicago Booth School of Business, the same institution where former RBI governor Raghuram Rajan is engaged with as a Distinguished Service Professor of Finance.