Auto-enrolment inspiration Richard Thaler wins Nobel Economics Prize

Co-author of the best-selling title Nudge, Thaler was a key influence on former Conservative chancellor George Osborne's policies. His ideas helped inspire the Treasury to introduce policies such as auto-enrolment and the winter fuel payment. Thaler argued, for example, that earmarking money for certain uses when giving it to people, despite it being available to use for any purpose, was more likely to be spent for the suggested reason - the theory behind winter fuel payments for pensioners. Since 1995, Thaler has been professor of behavioural economics at Chicago University, which sa...