Sendhil Mullainathan quotes

January is always a good month for behavioral economics: Few things illustrate self-control as vividly as New Year's resolutions. February is even better, though, because it lets us study why so many of those resolutions are broken. (Sendhil Mullainathan)
The scarcity trap captures this notion we see again and again in many domains. When people have very little, they undertake behaviors that maintain or reinforce their future disadvantage. If you have very little, you often behave in such a way so that youll have little in the future. View quote
Sendhil Mullainathan
Some struggle with medical issues - like insomnia - that make sleep hard. But for many of us, the quantity and quality of sleep come down to a matter of choice. Still, only a few enterprising economists have looked closely at this, and generally, those have assumed that we choose our hours of sleep optimally. View quote
Sendhil Mullainathan
There's a popular image of people who don't save for the future as lacking in self-control. But the reason saving is so hard has less to do with self-control and more to do with a scarcity of attention. View quote
Sendhil Mullainathan
Marketing is selling an ad to a firm. So, in some sense, a lot of marketing is about convincing a CEO, 'This is a good ad campaign.' So, there is a little bit of slippage there. That's just a caveat. That's different from actually having an effective ad campaign. View quote
Sendhil Mullainathan
The ability to save automatically is among the most powerful tools available to us. View quote
Sendhil Mullainathan
Faced with a time shortage, we squeeze tasks into the nooks and crannies of our calendar, leaving less and less time to switch between them. As a result, we become less and less productive exactly when we need to be most productive. View quote
Sendhil Mullainathan
Eat better or work out more, and youll see the benefits weeks, months or years down the road. Sleep more, and youll see the benefits tomorrow. View quote
Sendhil Mullainathan

Sendhil Mullainathan

Sendhil Mullainathan - Image
Photo: Kaveh Sardari - Center for Global Development (CGD), CC BY 2.0
Occupation: American Economist
Born: 1973
Quotes count: 8