Robert J. Shiller quotes

Robert J. Shiller is an American economist recognized for his influential work in behavioral economics and financial markets. His research on asset prices and market bubbles has had a profound impact on economic theory and public policy. He has received numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Economics. Here are 47 of his quotes:

Money management has been a profession involving a lot of fakery - people saying they can beat the market, and they really can't.

Robert J. Shiller

Somehow, talking to young students brings you back to reality - it should, anyway.

Robert J. Shiller

It amazes me how people are often more willing to act based on little or no data than to use data that is a challenge to assemble.

Robert J. Shiller

The ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence.

Robert J. Shiller

We judge economics by what it can produce. As such, economics is rather more like engineering than physics: more practical than spiritual.

Robert J. Shiller

A lot of people aren't saving enough. And incidentally, people are living longer now, and health care is improving. You might end up retired for 30 years - people are not really preparing for that.

Robert J. Shiller

That's the world we live in: when it comes to economics, people have emotions; it's not like chemistry or physics.

Robert J. Shiller

This [covariance] is something that is not in the habit of thinking of most amateur investors. They look at their investments one at a time, and they don't, you always have to go back and say, what's the covariance? That's what really matters for what happen to your portfolio. Because when you invest in a lot of companies that are all the same, you're asking for trouble, because the whole thing is going to either blow up or succeed. And you can't live like that. You have to be looking for low covariance.

Robert J. Shiller

My very first publication was an estimator - this was a statistical procedure - a kind of invention. My father got a patent and started a business; it wasn't successful, but maybe I have some of him in me.

Robert J. Shiller

I was reminded of how much I had misjudged the potential the profession would see in the time series rational expectations models. When I, as a graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) around 1970 did some work on the econometrics of rational expectations time series models, I felt rather apologetic about the extreme assumptions in the models. I did not expect others to regard them as anything more than a passing gimmick. Richard Sutch had just written in his MIT doctoral dissertation (1968) an exposition of the coefficient restrictions implied for time series representations of long-term and short-term interest rates, but he never bothered to publish this work. I remember conversations with him and others about rational expectations models, and I did not come away thinking they were the wave of the future.

Robert J. Shiller

Finance is not merely about making money. It's about achieving our deep goals and protecting the fruits of our labor. It's about stewardship and, therefore, about achieving the good society.

Robert J. Shiller

In a bubble, eventually people start saying, 'Wait a minute... these prices are way too high! What is anyone buying anymore? What could they possibly be thinking?' And then there's a correction and a bursting.

Robert J. Shiller

The future is always coming up with surprises for us, and the best way to insulate yourself from these surprises is to diversify.

Robert J. Shiller

In a perfect world, people don't have to move to another country to get a higher wage. Ultimately, they need only be able to participate in producing output that is sold internationally.

Robert J. Shiller

I think we do need to try to not just rely on the central bank to, in its wisdom, adjust interest rates, but allow for people to avoid being exposed to inflation risk.

Robert J. Shiller

Yes, horoscopes still persist in popular newspapers, but they are there only for the severely scientifically challenged, or for entertainment; the idea that the stars determine our fate has lost all intellectual currency.

Robert J. Shiller

When I see the Trump supporters on television explaining themselves, I don't get a feeling of supreme confidence. They've created a revolution, and now maybe they're a little scared by it.

Robert J. Shiller

I often tend to think that things are not what they seem.

Robert J. Shiller

All taxes, except a 'lump-sum tax,' introduce distortions in the economy. But no government can impose a lump-sum tax - the same amount for everyone regardless of their income or expenditures - because it would fall heaviest on those with less income, and it would grind the poor, who might be unable to pay it at all.

Robert J. Shiller

Diversify, because that helps reduce risk. And you can diversify outside the United States. Some people would never invest in Europe - I think that's a mistake.

Robert J. Shiller

Critics of 'economic sciences' sometimes refer to the development of a 'pseudoscience' of economics, arguing that it uses the trappings of science, like dense mathematics, but only for show.

Robert J. Shiller

Any time you have change, it costs somebody. Somebody is a loser.

Robert J. Shiller