When it comes to my health, I would rather my doctor base her decisions on science rather than what she, or some lawyer, thinks will stand up in court.

In the world of traditional economics, it shouldn't matter whether you use an opt-in or opt-out system. So long as the costs of registering as a donor or a nondonor are low, the results should be similar. But many findings of behavioral economics show that tiny disparities in such rules can make a big difference.

When it comes to assessing the chances of some complicated combination of events, gut feelings are pretty much useless.

How can government reduce the frequency and the severity of future catastrophes? Companies that have the potential to create significant harm must be required to pay for the costs they inflict, either before or after the fact. Economists agree on this general approach. The problem is in putting such a policy into effect.

The good thing I will say about the Chicago School is that it was always about the world, not about the abstract.

The lesson for businesses is you are dealing with real people. Those are your customers, those are your employees, those are your bosses, and the better you understand how real people tick, the more successfully you will be able to accomplish your goals.

One of society's thorniest problems is that children from poor families start school lagging badly behind their more affluent classmates in readiness.

Parents want their children to excel, callers to a victims' hot line want help, and sick people want to get well. Offering aids is like providing an alarm clock: it may help people get to an appointment on time, but no one is forcing them to use it.

If we think that high marginal tax rates are bad because they distort incentives, the same is then true for tax subsidies.

The tradition of Chicago price theory is a good one, and it is a low-tech methodology that tries to apply simple economic theory to the world.

Tax cuts are one of many ways to stimulate the economy. Building infrastructure, for example, is another.

It's essential that we understand things like the free-rider problem, but we also need to understand that, fortunately, humans are a little nicer than economists give them credit for. Some people actually leave money at roadside fruit stands; some people give money to NPR so we can listen to it.

I try to teach people to make fewer mistakes. But in designing economic policies, we need to take full account of the fact that people are busy, they're absent minded, they're lazy, and that we should try to make things as easy for them as possible.

Signing up to be an organ donor should be at least as easy as downloading a song to your iPhone.

One reason for high health care costs is that patients fail to follow their treatment regimen.

The main thing that you learn in grad school, or should learn, is how to think like an economist. The rest is just math.

It's not that we can predict bubbles - if we could, we would be rich. But we can certainly have a bubble warning system.

If governments want to encourage good citizenship, they should try making the desired behavior more fun.

Pundits are no better at forecasting election outcomes than they would be at predicting the final path of a hurricane. Smart pundits should consider either abandoning this activity or consulting with the geeks before rendering their guesses.

The more we turn down questionable offers like trip insurance and scrutinize 'one month' trials, the less incentive companies will have to use such schemes.

The sad truth is that many behavioral economists know very little about psychology.

If there is one thing that most economists agree about in the realm of tax policy, it is that it's best to broaden the base of any tax, all else being equal. That means minimizing the number of deductions and exclusions from taxable income in order to lower marginal rates and reduce distortions.

Leaders are important but not omnipotent.

I am all for trying to teach household finance in schools, starting as early as possible. And when it comes to high school, I think learning about compound interest is at least as important as trigonometry or memorizing the names of all 50 state capitals.