Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much

By scarcity we mean having less than you feel you need. Sendhil felt harried; he felt he had too little time to do all the things he needed to do. Shawn felt cash-strapped, with too little money for all the bills he needed to pay. Could this common connection explain their behavior? Could it be that scarcity itself led Sendhil and Shawn to behave in such similar ways?

Scarcity: Why having too little means so much

Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir are two leading figures in this field. Mullainathan teaches economics at Harvard and is a MacArthur Fellow. Shafir teaches psychology and public policy at Princeton. This week, they released an accessible short book called Scarcity: Why having too little means so much, which summarizes some of the best behavioral economics work. 041b061a72