1 00:00:02,520 --> 00:00:11,840 Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news. This is Masters in 2 00:00:11,920 --> 00:00:15,440 Speaker 1: Business with Barry Ritholts on Bloomberg Radio. 3 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:21,800 Speaker 2: Hey, it's a bonus Masters in Business Live. One of 4 00:00:21,880 --> 00:00:26,680 Speaker 2: my favorite economists, Richard Taylor and his colleague at the 5 00:00:26,680 --> 00:00:30,360 Speaker 2: Booth School of Business, Alex Emos, We're going to give 6 00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:35,320 Speaker 2: a presentation at the New York Economic Club. And they said, Hey, 7 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:40,760 Speaker 2: why don't we make this a live conversation and literally said, hey, 8 00:00:40,760 --> 00:00:46,000 Speaker 2: how do you feel about being our intolocutor And any 9 00:00:46,040 --> 00:00:49,560 Speaker 2: opportunity I have to spend time with Taylor, I jump 10 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:53,280 Speaker 2: at So sure, let's do that. And so a few 11 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:57,560 Speaker 2: weeks ago I sat down with Professor Richard Thaylor and 12 00:00:57,720 --> 00:01:02,320 Speaker 2: Professor Alex Emos, both of the Booth School of Business 13 00:01:02,360 --> 00:01:05,720 Speaker 2: at the University of Chicago, live at the New York 14 00:01:05,760 --> 00:01:11,119 Speaker 2: Economic Club, talking about their new version of the book, 15 00:01:11,240 --> 00:01:15,280 Speaker 2: The Winner's Curse. It was about thirty forty minutes of conversation. 16 00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:19,600 Speaker 2: We had some questions from the audience. It was fabulous. 17 00:01:19,680 --> 00:01:21,399 Speaker 2: In fact, it was so good. We're going to have 18 00:01:21,520 --> 00:01:26,680 Speaker 2: them back in the studio for a full Masters in Business, 19 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:30,360 Speaker 2: which is now already recorded. It won't be out for 20 00:01:30,400 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 2: a couple of weeks, but in the meantime, to give 21 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:35,360 Speaker 2: you a taste of what that full interview is like, 22 00:01:36,000 --> 00:01:41,679 Speaker 2: here is our live Masters in Business conversation at the 23 00:01:41,800 --> 00:01:49,240 Speaker 2: New York Economic Club. I'm kind of fascinated by not 24 00:01:49,280 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 2: only this book, but Richard's entire history, and a lot 25 00:01:55,920 --> 00:01:59,840 Speaker 2: of what I know about him really came to the 26 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:05,800 Speaker 2: public eye through the Anomalies columns that began so long ago. 27 00:02:06,480 --> 00:02:10,200 Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit about the genesis of what 28 00:02:10,320 --> 00:02:14,800 Speaker 2: the Anomalies columns were and how that led to this book. 29 00:02:15,360 --> 00:02:23,240 Speaker 3: Sure, so, about nineteen eighty six, somebody at the American 30 00:02:23,280 --> 00:02:26,880 Speaker 3: Economics Association decided it would be a good idea to 31 00:02:26,960 --> 00:02:31,080 Speaker 3: start a new journal in which the articles would be 32 00:02:31,160 --> 00:02:37,800 Speaker 3: accessible to at least all economists and grad students and 33 00:02:37,880 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 3: even undergrads, because articles have become more and more specialized. 34 00:02:43,960 --> 00:02:47,040 Speaker 3: So that was the idea. I had a friend. I 35 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:52,160 Speaker 3: have a friend named hal Varian who has been the 36 00:02:52,240 --> 00:02:56,000 Speaker 3: chief economist at Google. He was a mere professor at 37 00:02:56,000 --> 00:02:58,880 Speaker 3: the time and on the advisory board of this journal, 38 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,920 Speaker 3: and they were planning some pieces that would appear in 39 00:03:03,960 --> 00:03:07,640 Speaker 3: every issue, which is once a quarter, and Hall and 40 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:12,240 Speaker 3: I cooked up the idea of having a feature on anomalies. 41 00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:18,800 Speaker 3: So what's an anomaly in economics? An anomaly is something 42 00:03:19,200 --> 00:03:26,160 Speaker 3: that cannot easily be explained using the standard assumptions that 43 00:03:26,200 --> 00:03:35,320 Speaker 3: people are really smart, unemotional, selfish, no self control problems, 44 00:03:36,600 --> 00:03:43,120 Speaker 3: basically not like anybody you know. And so as a 45 00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:46,480 Speaker 3: result of that, there were lots of anomalies. And I 46 00:03:46,640 --> 00:03:53,720 Speaker 3: did this for almost four years. When it looked like 47 00:03:54,360 --> 00:03:57,920 Speaker 3: a pile of them looked like a book, I stapled 48 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:01,880 Speaker 3: them together and that was the original version of The 49 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:04,760 Speaker 3: Winner's Curse, published in nineteen ninety two. 50 00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:09,520 Speaker 2: So the book comes out in ninety two. I was curious, 51 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:16,599 Speaker 2: how was it received by traditional economists. You're challenging core 52 00:04:16,760 --> 00:04:20,720 Speaker 2: thesis that they deeply believe in, and did the lay 53 00:04:20,760 --> 00:04:22,320 Speaker 2: public take any interest in us? 54 00:04:22,920 --> 00:04:26,320 Speaker 3: So, you know, I'm very good friends with Steve Levitt 55 00:04:26,400 --> 00:04:33,679 Speaker 3: and Stephen Dubner. They basically invented a best selling economics book. 56 00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:37,720 Speaker 3: Before Freakonomics, there was no such a thing. So this 57 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 3: is pre pre freeconomics. It was read, but the profession 58 00:04:45,560 --> 00:04:50,960 Speaker 3: had read the articles in the journal, and the book 59 00:04:51,080 --> 00:04:56,400 Speaker 3: was an attempt to reach out. But you know, I've 60 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:01,960 Speaker 3: often said that, you know, I'm a professional heretic and troublemaker, 61 00:05:02,640 --> 00:05:07,039 Speaker 3: and I say, I didn't change anybody's mind over the 62 00:05:07,080 --> 00:05:12,880 Speaker 3: course of my career, and after realizing that, I decided 63 00:05:13,000 --> 00:05:24,520 Speaker 3: instead to have a strategy of corrupting the youth. And Alex, so, yeah, 64 00:05:24,560 --> 00:05:27,599 Speaker 3: I'll let Alex tell his version of the story. But 65 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:35,159 Speaker 3: you know, the book sold better than expected and was around. 66 00:05:35,560 --> 00:05:42,760 Speaker 3: It was still in print, but for various boring reasons, 67 00:05:43,120 --> 00:05:45,640 Speaker 3: it was going to go out of print, and the 68 00:05:45,680 --> 00:05:49,840 Speaker 3: publisher asked me if I wanted to freshen it up, 69 00:05:50,839 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 3: and that turned into a well we first talked about 70 00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:58,479 Speaker 3: that five years ago, so you can see how long 71 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:04,239 Speaker 3: it took. But that's that's the story of the book. 72 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:08,680 Speaker 2: So, Alex, how did you get corrupted by doctor Thaylor? 73 00:06:09,480 --> 00:06:12,120 Speaker 4: I didn't need much much pushing, so I was. 74 00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:16,239 Speaker 5: I was a neuroscience undergrad major, so I was already 75 00:06:16,320 --> 00:06:20,240 Speaker 5: kind of interested in, you know, how human minds actually worked. 76 00:06:20,240 --> 00:06:22,719 Speaker 5: I took a bunch of abnormal psychology and things like that, 77 00:06:23,160 --> 00:06:26,719 Speaker 5: but science like STEM classes were really really hard, and 78 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:28,920 Speaker 5: so I took economics as kind of a way to 79 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:33,880 Speaker 5: boost my GPA. So and I thought it was fun 80 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:38,080 Speaker 5: that the algebra was interesting, and but I didn't, you know, 81 00:06:38,120 --> 00:06:41,160 Speaker 5: I didn't think of much of it. And then at 82 00:06:41,160 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 5: some point I was like, I was moving and I 83 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:44,800 Speaker 5: was a planing of medical school. By the way, I 84 00:06:44,880 --> 00:06:49,880 Speaker 5: was pre med, good immigrant kid, and I was I 85 00:06:49,920 --> 00:06:52,479 Speaker 5: was driving cross country and I was listening to the 86 00:06:52,560 --> 00:06:55,040 Speaker 5: radio and Richard was on the radio. 87 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:57,120 Speaker 4: This was two thousand and eight. I had no idea 88 00:06:57,200 --> 00:06:59,039 Speaker 4: who Richard was. I didn't know what nudge was. 89 00:06:59,080 --> 00:07:02,279 Speaker 5: He was on on NPR talking about NUDGE and it 90 00:07:02,320 --> 00:07:05,120 Speaker 5: was about about this field called behavioral economics that I've 91 00:07:05,120 --> 00:07:07,520 Speaker 5: never heard about before. And I was like, wait, I 92 00:07:07,560 --> 00:07:12,000 Speaker 5: could take this and combine it with that, and that's amazing. 93 00:07:12,040 --> 00:07:15,800 Speaker 5: I got to Los Angeles, went online, applied to em 94 00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:19,000 Speaker 5: PhD programs right away, didn't end up going to medical school, 95 00:07:19,440 --> 00:07:21,920 Speaker 5: and I ended up going to UC San Diego for 96 00:07:21,960 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 5: my PhD. 97 00:07:23,280 --> 00:07:26,560 Speaker 4: And lo and behold, Richard was not on the roster. 98 00:07:26,360 --> 00:07:29,800 Speaker 5: But he spent his winters in San Diego in the 99 00:07:29,880 --> 00:07:30,880 Speaker 5: office next to me. 100 00:07:32,120 --> 00:07:36,880 Speaker 4: And you know, I would come out at first sight. 101 00:07:39,160 --> 00:07:42,760 Speaker 5: You corrupted me just way earlier, and so I was, 102 00:07:43,240 --> 00:07:44,320 Speaker 5: you know, we started chatting. 103 00:07:44,360 --> 00:07:45,880 Speaker 4: Then I got a job at Carnegie Mellon. 104 00:07:46,000 --> 00:07:49,040 Speaker 5: Afterwards, we kept in touch and then I got a 105 00:07:49,120 --> 00:07:52,040 Speaker 5: job offered at University of Chicago, and I think like 106 00:07:52,160 --> 00:07:54,400 Speaker 5: I got there in July twenty twenty. 107 00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:56,640 Speaker 4: I think within like a few months, you gave me. 108 00:07:56,640 --> 00:07:59,480 Speaker 5: A call and say, hey, my publisher is asking I 109 00:07:59,480 --> 00:08:02,640 Speaker 5: should freshen up the book, maybe to give it a 110 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,200 Speaker 5: new preface, but I want to do something a little 111 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:08,760 Speaker 5: bit more ambitious than that, and you know, we can 112 00:08:08,960 --> 00:08:11,200 Speaker 5: play around with it, add some new things. It'll take 113 00:08:11,200 --> 00:08:13,720 Speaker 5: about six months, easy, easy work. 114 00:08:13,760 --> 00:08:15,200 Speaker 4: We get to hang out, and. 115 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:19,600 Speaker 5: I jumped at the opportunity, and then we kept talking 116 00:08:19,720 --> 00:08:21,760 Speaker 5: and then it grew and grew and grew, and that 117 00:08:21,880 --> 00:08:24,400 Speaker 5: book is about two thirds new content at this point. 118 00:08:24,440 --> 00:08:27,120 Speaker 5: So it took five years of writing and going back 119 00:08:27,160 --> 00:08:29,360 Speaker 5: and forth. And you know, there's been thirty years of 120 00:08:29,440 --> 00:08:33,599 Speaker 5: research since nineteen ninety two, and so that's kind of 121 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:37,840 Speaker 5: the book. The original winner's courses in there a little 122 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:40,839 Speaker 5: bit rewritten and freshened up, but the thirty years of 123 00:08:40,880 --> 00:08:44,359 Speaker 5: research are now in there too. So every single anomalies 124 00:08:44,440 --> 00:08:47,040 Speaker 5: column there were new anomalies that were added to it that. 125 00:08:47,120 --> 00:08:48,600 Speaker 4: Richard had written afterwards. 126 00:08:48,840 --> 00:08:52,319 Speaker 5: But also every single chapter comes with an update basically 127 00:08:52,360 --> 00:08:55,320 Speaker 5: reviewing everything that's happened in the last thirty years of behaviorly. 128 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:57,680 Speaker 2: So I'm going to circle back to the book in 129 00:08:57,720 --> 00:09:00,600 Speaker 2: a moment. But for people who are UNFLI familiar with 130 00:09:00,679 --> 00:09:06,079 Speaker 2: Alex this wasn't just a random kid next door. He 131 00:09:06,120 --> 00:09:09,840 Speaker 2: wrote what could be one of the most cited finance 132 00:09:09,920 --> 00:09:14,079 Speaker 2: papers of recent years, called I'm going to get this wrong, 133 00:09:14,480 --> 00:09:15,760 Speaker 2: Selling fast and Buying Slow? 134 00:09:15,840 --> 00:09:16,280 Speaker 3: Is that right? 135 00:09:17,240 --> 00:09:19,360 Speaker 2: Selling fast and Buying Slow? It's a chapter in my 136 00:09:19,440 --> 00:09:24,200 Speaker 2: book I've written about it, and you describe how professional 137 00:09:24,200 --> 00:09:28,480 Speaker 2: fund managers are really really good buyers of stocks. What 138 00:09:28,679 --> 00:09:32,760 Speaker 2: turns out they're terrible sellers of stock. Nobody had discussed 139 00:09:32,760 --> 00:09:35,679 Speaker 2: this in this sort of detail, and that's one of 140 00:09:35,720 --> 00:09:39,400 Speaker 2: the reasons that paper has become so highly regarded. But 141 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:43,120 Speaker 2: I just wanted the audience to be aware of who 142 00:09:43,160 --> 00:09:48,160 Speaker 2: you were. Tell us what it was like working on 143 00:09:48,200 --> 00:09:49,080 Speaker 2: the book with Richard. 144 00:09:50,200 --> 00:09:51,240 Speaker 4: It was just a lot of fun. 145 00:09:51,559 --> 00:09:54,160 Speaker 5: I mean, we would get on the phone and you know, 146 00:09:54,280 --> 00:09:56,800 Speaker 5: why don't we talk about this topic. 147 00:09:58,200 --> 00:09:59,200 Speaker 4: A lot of the research? 148 00:10:00,160 --> 00:10:02,360 Speaker 5: You know, I kind of wrote, I took lead on 149 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:04,360 Speaker 5: the updates and we kind of went back and forth 150 00:10:04,400 --> 00:10:08,120 Speaker 5: on them, and then it was you know, just a 151 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:10,480 Speaker 5: lot of a lot of conversations over the phone during 152 00:10:10,520 --> 00:10:13,160 Speaker 5: COVID it was a lot of zoom. Then it moved 153 00:10:13,160 --> 00:10:15,200 Speaker 5: on to you know, we were colleagues at the University 154 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:19,240 Speaker 5: of Chicago coffees, just kind of going back and forth 155 00:10:19,280 --> 00:10:23,200 Speaker 5: on what should be included, what push, what where. A 156 00:10:23,200 --> 00:10:25,560 Speaker 5: lot of it was about framing of where the field 157 00:10:25,720 --> 00:10:30,360 Speaker 5: has come and where what we kind of found out. 158 00:10:30,400 --> 00:10:32,199 Speaker 5: I don't think this was obvious when we first started 159 00:10:32,200 --> 00:10:34,640 Speaker 5: the book, is that where the field has come is 160 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:36,840 Speaker 5: really gone from these lab experiments that were in the 161 00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:40,280 Speaker 5: original columns in the Winner's Curse, where it was college students, 162 00:10:40,720 --> 00:10:43,400 Speaker 5: low stakes, maybe not even any stakes at all. And 163 00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:46,400 Speaker 5: the pushback from the economics profession was, look, we don't 164 00:10:46,400 --> 00:10:48,880 Speaker 5: really care about students, We care about market participants. 165 00:10:49,120 --> 00:10:51,199 Speaker 4: The updates are all about Look. 166 00:10:51,240 --> 00:10:54,280 Speaker 5: All of these anomalies, as you mentioned, replicate in some 167 00:10:54,360 --> 00:10:57,640 Speaker 5: of the most sophisticated economic participants out there, such as 168 00:10:57,679 --> 00:10:59,760 Speaker 5: institutional investors in the case of my paper. 169 00:11:00,480 --> 00:11:04,120 Speaker 2: So there are some ideas in the book down in 170 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:09,439 Speaker 2: effect status quo biased Winners Curse that were or today 171 00:11:09,600 --> 00:11:15,040 Speaker 2: are everyday vocabulary, but back then people really know about it. 172 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:19,760 Speaker 2: The whole book has aged fairly well. What do you 173 00:11:19,840 --> 00:11:24,160 Speaker 2: think about those original ideas, Richard, and how they present 174 00:11:24,400 --> 00:11:25,240 Speaker 2: in the modern world. 175 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:31,000 Speaker 3: Well, I mean, the one of the one of the 176 00:11:31,320 --> 00:11:36,880 Speaker 3: motivations for writing the book is the so called replication crisis. 177 00:11:37,960 --> 00:11:42,080 Speaker 3: It's not really a crisis, but there's there has been 178 00:11:43,600 --> 00:11:49,480 Speaker 3: several papers and several fields where the original experiments cannot 179 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:55,400 Speaker 3: be reproduced, and some of those papers are, let's say, 180 00:11:55,440 --> 00:12:02,640 Speaker 3: adjacent to behavioral economics, and I was worried that some 181 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:08,120 Speaker 3: of that bad aroma would rub off on us. And 182 00:12:10,320 --> 00:12:18,200 Speaker 3: I think the reason why things replicate so well is 183 00:12:18,400 --> 00:12:22,600 Speaker 3: when I was choosing what topics to write about, I 184 00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:27,360 Speaker 3: was picking big stuff. I wasn't picking some little minor thing. 185 00:12:27,960 --> 00:12:32,560 Speaker 3: I was picking something with a very big effect size 186 00:12:32,679 --> 00:12:40,200 Speaker 3: and topics. There had already been several papers. So you know, 187 00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:45,960 Speaker 3: it's not when we started this that we realized there 188 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:51,559 Speaker 3: really wouldn't be any problems. But we were pleasantly surprised 189 00:12:51,679 --> 00:12:57,400 Speaker 3: not to find any anything in the attic, so. 190 00:12:57,400 --> 00:13:03,240 Speaker 2: To speak, nothing aged poorly. No, not really what has 191 00:13:03,400 --> 00:13:08,520 Speaker 2: persisted or if anything, have become more widely accepted today. 192 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:12,760 Speaker 2: That was a pleasant surprise. Amongst the chapters in the book. 193 00:13:15,080 --> 00:13:20,079 Speaker 5: WHOA the endowment effect now so you know, back then 194 00:13:20,160 --> 00:13:22,360 Speaker 5: Bick in the ninety two book, it was about mugs 195 00:13:22,400 --> 00:13:25,640 Speaker 5: and pens. So the endowment effect is this phenomenon where 196 00:13:25,880 --> 00:13:29,360 Speaker 5: you know, buyers and sellers are in a market. The 197 00:13:29,480 --> 00:13:31,360 Speaker 5: idea is that if you assign a good to a 198 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:34,760 Speaker 5: buyer seller. There's a theorem in economics that underlies Basically, 199 00:13:35,160 --> 00:13:38,040 Speaker 5: it's one of the fundamental theorems in economics called the 200 00:13:38,120 --> 00:13:40,560 Speaker 5: coast theorem. Basically, it means that it doesn't matter who's 201 00:13:40,559 --> 00:13:43,880 Speaker 5: assigned property rights, there's going to be transactions where people 202 00:13:44,040 --> 00:13:46,160 Speaker 5: the person who wants it the most or values are 203 00:13:46,160 --> 00:13:48,040 Speaker 5: the most, that's going to end up with it. And 204 00:13:48,400 --> 00:13:52,400 Speaker 5: what Richard showed in a paper with Jack Netch and 205 00:13:52,520 --> 00:13:57,120 Speaker 5: Danny Kahneman is that basically, you know half, Let's say Barry, 206 00:13:57,160 --> 00:13:59,640 Speaker 5: you are sitting in a classroom. I'm sitting in a 207 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:02,160 Speaker 5: class the professor gives me a mug and doesn't give 208 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:03,680 Speaker 5: you a mug. You have some money in your pocket, 209 00:14:03,920 --> 00:14:06,599 Speaker 5: and he's asking what is the lowest amount that you 210 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:09,120 Speaker 5: would be willing to sell the mug? And he's asking you, 211 00:14:09,840 --> 00:14:11,760 Speaker 5: is how what's the most you'd be willing to pay 212 00:14:11,800 --> 00:14:14,920 Speaker 5: for the mug? Because it doesn't matter we were randomly assigned, 213 00:14:15,280 --> 00:14:17,800 Speaker 5: we should have basically the same average valuation, but it 214 00:14:17,840 --> 00:14:20,040 Speaker 5: turns out just because I own the mug, I start 215 00:14:20,160 --> 00:14:23,360 Speaker 5: valuating it more. This is called the endowment effect, and 216 00:14:23,880 --> 00:14:26,840 Speaker 5: what Richard and Danny and Jack showed is that it's 217 00:14:26,840 --> 00:14:29,400 Speaker 5: about two and a half times more. So there's like 218 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:32,160 Speaker 5: a breakdown in the market because of this endowment effect. 219 00:14:32,840 --> 00:14:36,960 Speaker 5: So what have we found? What has been documented thus far? 220 00:14:37,000 --> 00:14:39,960 Speaker 5: There's a paper in the American Economic Review, the top 221 00:14:40,040 --> 00:14:42,720 Speaker 5: journal in the profession, showing that there's an endowment effect 222 00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:46,160 Speaker 5: for houses, and you can actually estimate exactly the amount 223 00:14:46,160 --> 00:14:50,480 Speaker 5: of loss aversion that people have which drives them to post. 224 00:14:50,680 --> 00:14:53,000 Speaker 5: If they own the house, they post the house at 225 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:57,000 Speaker 5: a higher price. And the number the actual quantitative number 226 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:00,560 Speaker 5: in housing markets. This is the crazy part about it 227 00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:04,960 Speaker 5: matches the number that Richard documented in the lab. So 228 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:08,880 Speaker 5: there's a there's there's obviously a lot of back and 229 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:13,800 Speaker 5: forth between different experimental is, different different experiments and stuff 230 00:15:13,800 --> 00:15:16,560 Speaker 5: like that, but even most of the quantitative magnitudes have 231 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:17,240 Speaker 5: been great. 232 00:15:17,440 --> 00:15:21,960 Speaker 2: It's robust. Let's talk about something that economic theory says 233 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:27,840 Speaker 2: shouldn't happen. Ultimatums and cooperations let's talk about the ultimatum game. 234 00:15:27,920 --> 00:15:28,920 Speaker 2: Tell us a little bit about that. 235 00:15:29,000 --> 00:15:34,600 Speaker 3: Okay, sure, So the ultimatum game is pretty simple. Let's 236 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:38,120 Speaker 3: say I give Barry one hundred dollars and I tell 237 00:15:38,200 --> 00:15:42,160 Speaker 3: him that he's got to share it with Alex. He 238 00:15:42,240 --> 00:15:46,880 Speaker 3: can make Alex an offer for some amount of the hundred. 239 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:47,960 Speaker 3: You can give all. 240 00:15:48,040 --> 00:15:52,480 Speaker 2: Hundred unlikely, I'll take it. 241 00:15:53,400 --> 00:15:58,000 Speaker 3: Alex gets to say yes or no, So it's an ultimatum. 242 00:15:59,400 --> 00:16:03,760 Speaker 3: And if he says yes, deal he says no, they 243 00:16:03,800 --> 00:16:09,760 Speaker 3: both get nothing. Now that game was invented, It didn't 244 00:16:09,840 --> 00:16:15,360 Speaker 3: really surprise us. It was invented because we kind of 245 00:16:15,480 --> 00:16:19,960 Speaker 3: knew what was going to happen, which was so. But 246 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:25,000 Speaker 3: before that, let's say, what does economic theory say and 247 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:29,400 Speaker 3: what does game theory say? Game theory says people are 248 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:35,320 Speaker 3: selfish and Alex, if you offer him a dollar, don't 249 00:16:35,360 --> 00:16:38,400 Speaker 3: insult him with a quarter or a penny. But if 250 00:16:38,400 --> 00:16:42,800 Speaker 3: you offer him a dollar dollars or something, and he 251 00:16:42,960 --> 00:16:46,240 Speaker 3: knows the dollars worth more than zero, so he'll take it. 252 00:16:47,240 --> 00:16:52,760 Speaker 3: And you know that he knows that, and so you 253 00:16:52,880 --> 00:16:56,320 Speaker 3: offer him a dollar and he takes it. No, no 254 00:16:56,560 --> 00:17:01,560 Speaker 3: real world person has ever done that. 255 00:17:00,120 --> 00:17:04,720 Speaker 2: Meaning in the lab experiments, what's the number under twenty dollars. 256 00:17:05,000 --> 00:17:08,879 Speaker 3: Under yeah, offers less than twenty percent of whatever the 257 00:17:08,920 --> 00:17:12,840 Speaker 3: pie is are more likely are likely to be rejected. 258 00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:18,040 Speaker 3: Allfers tend to be fifty to fifty. The profit maximizing 259 00:17:18,080 --> 00:17:23,959 Speaker 3: offer is forty percent. So there are a whole We 260 00:17:24,040 --> 00:17:29,200 Speaker 3: have two chapters that are about games sort of like this. 261 00:17:29,960 --> 00:17:33,760 Speaker 3: The big lesson is that in the world, you're dealing 262 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:38,440 Speaker 3: with people, and if you make insulting offers, they may 263 00:17:38,480 --> 00:17:45,359 Speaker 3: get rejected. And if you want cooperation, you have to 264 00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:50,640 Speaker 3: be cooperative. Let me tell you a story that's related 265 00:17:50,640 --> 00:17:54,080 Speaker 3: to this. Years ago, my wife and I were in 266 00:17:54,160 --> 00:18:00,600 Speaker 3: Thailand and we needed to take a cab twenty minute 267 00:18:00,680 --> 00:18:04,760 Speaker 3: ride like three blocks here, but it was ten miles 268 00:18:04,800 --> 00:18:11,480 Speaker 3: and changed my so and everything is negotiated there. So 269 00:18:11,640 --> 00:18:16,959 Speaker 3: I'm negotiating with this cab driver and after wild negotiations, 270 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,639 Speaker 3: we agree on some fare out four dollars and we 271 00:18:21,200 --> 00:18:27,320 Speaker 3: get to the restaurant and then there was a question 272 00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:32,000 Speaker 3: of how are we going to get back? And the 273 00:18:32,080 --> 00:18:34,439 Speaker 3: cab driver said, would you like me to take you back? 274 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:41,240 Speaker 3: And notice there's a mutual risk of defection. He could 275 00:18:41,480 --> 00:18:44,760 Speaker 3: not be there when we get done with dinner, or 276 00:18:44,800 --> 00:18:47,960 Speaker 3: we could get done early and go back with somebody else. 277 00:18:48,720 --> 00:18:54,040 Speaker 3: He proposed a contract that no economist would ever recommend. 278 00:18:55,119 --> 00:18:59,959 Speaker 3: The contract was, he said, don't pay me anything perfect. 279 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:04,359 Speaker 3: So when dinner's over, of course we went to look 280 00:19:04,359 --> 00:19:06,560 Speaker 3: for this cab driver. We're not going to stiff the 281 00:19:06,640 --> 00:19:10,320 Speaker 3: cab driver. And in fact he dropped us somewhere else 282 00:19:10,400 --> 00:19:17,359 Speaker 3: for some other same thing. Now, what's the lesson there? 283 00:19:18,680 --> 00:19:26,399 Speaker 3: He knew that by being trusting he would engender trust, 284 00:19:28,160 --> 00:19:35,359 Speaker 3: and that's like a big important lesson both in business 285 00:19:35,840 --> 00:19:38,360 Speaker 3: and in life and in politics. 286 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:44,359 Speaker 2: Coming up, we continue our live conversation with doctor Richard 287 00:19:44,400 --> 00:19:47,960 Speaker 2: Taylor and doctor Alex Emos, both of the Booth School 288 00:19:48,080 --> 00:19:52,680 Speaker 2: of Business at the University of Chicago, discussing the newest 289 00:19:53,000 --> 00:20:07,760 Speaker 2: edition of their book, The Winner's Curse. I'm Barry Ridults. 290 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:11,800 Speaker 2: You're listening to Bloomberg's Masters in Business. Let's continue our 291 00:20:11,880 --> 00:20:16,959 Speaker 2: live conversation with Richard Taylor and Alex Amos discussing the 292 00:20:17,119 --> 00:20:22,440 Speaker 2: new edition of the book The Winner's Curse. So let's 293 00:20:22,440 --> 00:20:26,480 Speaker 2: talk about some other things within the book. The title 294 00:20:26,760 --> 00:20:31,080 Speaker 2: The Winner's Curse is really a fascinating story and leads 295 00:20:31,200 --> 00:20:35,800 Speaker 2: so many places. Let's start off talking about oil leases. 296 00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:37,240 Speaker 2: Tell us about the winner's curse. 297 00:20:38,680 --> 00:20:41,000 Speaker 3: You want to go, you want me to go, you 298 00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:48,080 Speaker 3: can do it. So this is the only chapter in 299 00:20:48,119 --> 00:20:52,880 Speaker 3: the book that the research original research was not done 300 00:20:53,119 --> 00:20:55,000 Speaker 3: by psychologists or economists. 301 00:20:55,080 --> 00:20:55,960 Speaker 4: The lord one price. 302 00:20:57,520 --> 00:21:02,640 Speaker 3: Oh, you're not calling financial economists as aonymous. Oh, and 303 00:21:02,680 --> 00:21:05,359 Speaker 3: that gets back to booth. You're going to be in 304 00:21:05,400 --> 00:21:05,680 Speaker 3: a lot. 305 00:21:05,800 --> 00:21:07,240 Speaker 4: I'm in a different part of the building. 306 00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:13,240 Speaker 3: So finance is just a branch of economics, it's not 307 00:21:13,400 --> 00:21:22,760 Speaker 3: its own field. So we're both dabblers in finance. So 308 00:21:23,960 --> 00:21:27,919 Speaker 3: the research on this was done by engineers at Atlantic 309 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:32,320 Speaker 3: Ridgefield ARCO. And here's what they found. They were bidding 310 00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:36,200 Speaker 3: for oil leases in what I still call the Gulf 311 00:21:36,240 --> 00:21:44,800 Speaker 3: of Mexico. And what they found was that for the 312 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:50,520 Speaker 3: leases they won, there was less oil than they expected. 313 00:21:51,640 --> 00:21:55,600 Speaker 3: And they're thinking, we have great geologists, how can we 314 00:21:55,720 --> 00:22:01,240 Speaker 3: be wrong? What's going on? And then they got an insight. 315 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:08,159 Speaker 3: The essence of the insight is that when you're in 316 00:22:08,240 --> 00:22:12,800 Speaker 3: an auction, the ones you win are not a random 317 00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:18,200 Speaker 3: sample of your bids. The auctions you win are when 318 00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:23,000 Speaker 3: you bid high. Right now, that sounds like a pretty 319 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:27,959 Speaker 3: obvious point, but it's not because if there are a 320 00:22:27,960 --> 00:22:32,359 Speaker 3: lot of bidders. Let's suppose that the version of this 321 00:22:32,520 --> 00:22:35,280 Speaker 3: that we would run in classrooms is we'd have a 322 00:22:35,400 --> 00:22:40,040 Speaker 3: jar of coins, and we'd have people bid for the 323 00:22:40,119 --> 00:22:44,080 Speaker 3: amount of money in the jar, not the coins. And 324 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:48,680 Speaker 3: what happens the average bid is, let's say the jar's 325 00:22:48,720 --> 00:22:52,359 Speaker 3: worth a hundred dollars, the average bid is much less 326 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:56,760 Speaker 3: because people are risk averse, but the winning bid is 327 00:22:56,840 --> 00:23:00,520 Speaker 3: always more than a hundred, because it's the most optimistic 328 00:23:00,640 --> 00:23:04,440 Speaker 3: person or the person with the first eyesight or whatever. 329 00:23:05,320 --> 00:23:17,600 Speaker 3: So this insight by the engineers applies everywhere, and contractors 330 00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:22,480 Speaker 3: have either learned this or go out of business right 331 00:23:22,560 --> 00:23:27,720 Speaker 3: because when they're bidding on a job, it low bid wins, 332 00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:33,120 Speaker 3: and if you forget the roof or the hvac, you're 333 00:23:33,160 --> 00:23:37,280 Speaker 3: going to go massively over. And so one of the 334 00:23:37,400 --> 00:23:41,359 Speaker 3: interesting follow up experiments was to take a bunch of 335 00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:45,800 Speaker 3: contractors and put them into one of these experiments and 336 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:50,520 Speaker 3: see what would happen. And the experimenters were a little 337 00:23:50,560 --> 00:23:53,199 Speaker 3: worried that the contractors were going to take them to 338 00:23:53,280 --> 00:23:57,600 Speaker 3: the cleaners, but they didn't. The reason is the contractors 339 00:23:57,760 --> 00:24:01,680 Speaker 3: never understood the math of this. Instead, they had a 340 00:24:01,720 --> 00:24:06,520 Speaker 3: fudge so they would figure out what they thought they 341 00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:10,480 Speaker 3: could build it for and then add twenty five and 342 00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:14,119 Speaker 3: that covers the stuff they forget. But they didn't have 343 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:18,080 Speaker 3: that rule for bidding for jars, and so they were 344 00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:21,720 Speaker 3: no better than the undergrads in The Winner's Curse. 345 00:24:23,280 --> 00:24:26,840 Speaker 2: How is this held up since what does the latest 346 00:24:26,920 --> 00:24:28,399 Speaker 2: data on the Winter Scurse look like? 347 00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:32,760 Speaker 5: Well, the Winter Skurs will as we discuss in the update, 348 00:24:32,840 --> 00:24:36,760 Speaker 5: that it's held up quite well as far as you know, 349 00:24:36,920 --> 00:24:39,960 Speaker 5: the experiment replicates. First of all, you know, you run 350 00:24:40,000 --> 00:24:42,840 Speaker 5: it in Harvard, you go into econ one to one 351 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:45,840 Speaker 5: at Harvard, you auction off of jar coins. They're going 352 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:49,199 Speaker 5: to be overbidding for the for the coins it's just 353 00:24:49,359 --> 00:24:51,119 Speaker 5: and then you know it's hold up, held up with 354 00:24:51,160 --> 00:24:55,000 Speaker 5: the NFL teams where you're you're basically bidding for free 355 00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:56,160 Speaker 5: agents and things like that. 356 00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,960 Speaker 4: So it shows up in the data and the big file. 357 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:02,640 Speaker 5: Follow up to The Winner's Curse has been the idea 358 00:25:02,840 --> 00:25:06,600 Speaker 5: the kind of abstracting from the phenomenon of the Winter's 359 00:25:06,640 --> 00:25:09,159 Speaker 5: Curse but thinking about like what leads to the Winter's 360 00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:13,200 Speaker 5: Curse in the first place, psychologically and psychologically, what leads 361 00:25:13,240 --> 00:25:15,720 Speaker 5: to the Winter's curse is you not taking into account 362 00:25:15,720 --> 00:25:18,639 Speaker 5: that you're bidding against other people. You're not just kind 363 00:25:18,680 --> 00:25:20,760 Speaker 5: of bidding alone. Oh I think this is worth this much. 364 00:25:21,640 --> 00:25:23,440 Speaker 5: That's how much I'm going to pay, shading down a 365 00:25:23,480 --> 00:25:26,040 Speaker 5: little bit. It's the fact that if I'm bidding with 366 00:25:26,160 --> 00:25:29,320 Speaker 5: a lot of people, if I end up winning, that's 367 00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:32,520 Speaker 5: real bad news for me because everybody else is just 368 00:25:32,520 --> 00:25:35,640 Speaker 5: as smart as me, and they're bidding a great they 369 00:25:35,880 --> 00:25:39,000 Speaker 5: with the similar information. And if I'm the one who's winning, 370 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:41,520 Speaker 5: I'm making a mistake. So you kind of have to 371 00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:44,520 Speaker 5: bid down. And so the other follow up experiments have 372 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:50,760 Speaker 5: basically explored where this sort of phenomenon shows up in 373 00:25:50,800 --> 00:25:55,080 Speaker 5: other places. So, for example, one setting is you know, 374 00:25:55,160 --> 00:25:59,960 Speaker 5: kind of thinking about there's the guessing game to be 375 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:03,400 Speaker 5: beauty contest game, which is meant to model from from 376 00:26:03,480 --> 00:26:06,240 Speaker 5: Caines exactly, so the follow up to the idea behind 377 00:26:06,240 --> 00:26:09,040 Speaker 5: the winner score. So Kines had the model for the 378 00:26:09,080 --> 00:26:12,639 Speaker 5: stock market where he said, the stock market is a 379 00:26:12,680 --> 00:26:14,679 Speaker 5: beauty contest in the sense that it's not that the 380 00:26:14,680 --> 00:26:17,560 Speaker 5: fundamental value of a stock would determine its price, it's 381 00:26:17,600 --> 00:26:21,639 Speaker 5: what everybody else thinks the fundamental value is it's all 382 00:26:21,680 --> 00:26:22,320 Speaker 5: about the belief. 383 00:26:22,400 --> 00:26:22,919 Speaker 4: So there was this. 384 00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:25,720 Speaker 5: The reason it's called the beauty contest is the newspapers 385 00:26:25,800 --> 00:26:28,440 Speaker 5: used to run these contests where you had a whole 386 00:26:28,480 --> 00:26:32,280 Speaker 5: page of faces, and the winner of the contest was 387 00:26:32,280 --> 00:26:35,000 Speaker 5: the one who chose the face that everybody else chose 388 00:26:35,240 --> 00:26:38,240 Speaker 5: as well. And so he said, the stock markets just 389 00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:40,880 Speaker 5: like that. And so you run the beauty contest by 390 00:26:40,960 --> 00:26:44,280 Speaker 5: saying something like, all right, what is guess the number 391 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:48,200 Speaker 5: between one and one hundred? The room guesses, everybody submits 392 00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,640 Speaker 5: a guess, and the winner is the one who guesses 393 00:26:51,680 --> 00:26:55,600 Speaker 5: two thirds of the average. Now again this game, think 394 00:26:55,600 --> 00:26:58,879 Speaker 5: about it for a second. This game has an e 395 00:26:58,880 --> 00:27:02,840 Speaker 5: economic solution. Then what's the solution we can we can 396 00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:03,400 Speaker 5: do right now? 397 00:27:03,400 --> 00:27:07,280 Speaker 3: It's the New York Economics Club. Somebody should know the equilibrium. 398 00:27:07,880 --> 00:27:11,520 Speaker 5: Anybody have a guess for the Nash equilibrium? 399 00:27:12,320 --> 00:27:16,040 Speaker 4: Yeah, should be Yeah, it should be one. 400 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:17,720 Speaker 3: It should be one, would be zero or one. 401 00:27:17,880 --> 00:27:20,200 Speaker 5: If if the lowest number is one is one, it's one. 402 00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:23,160 Speaker 5: And the reason is the following. Let's say I think 403 00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:25,479 Speaker 5: i'm I'm I'm playing against a bunch of you know, 404 00:27:25,640 --> 00:27:28,480 Speaker 5: random people. They don't know what they're doing. They're guessing randomly. 405 00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:31,200 Speaker 5: If everybody guesses randomly, the average is going to be fifty. 406 00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:34,000 Speaker 5: So I should do two thirds of that, right, But 407 00:27:34,040 --> 00:27:35,800 Speaker 5: then I think, all right, if it's two thirds of that, 408 00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:39,199 Speaker 5: I guess that. Wait, well, they're probably going to think 409 00:27:39,240 --> 00:27:41,840 Speaker 5: the same thing, and so they're going to guess two 410 00:27:41,920 --> 00:27:43,960 Speaker 5: thirds of fifty, so I should do two thirds of that. 411 00:27:44,800 --> 00:27:47,639 Speaker 4: But then I think, wait, no, hold on, hold on, 412 00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:48,320 Speaker 4: I'm going to do. 413 00:27:48,320 --> 00:27:51,000 Speaker 5: Two thirds of that, and two thirds two thirds, two 414 00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:53,720 Speaker 5: thirds I get to one, right, So that's the Nash 415 00:27:53,720 --> 00:27:54,720 Speaker 5: equilibrium solution. 416 00:27:55,840 --> 00:27:59,360 Speaker 4: Would you win guessing one? 417 00:28:00,280 --> 00:28:04,159 Speaker 5: No, you would not win guessing one because other people 418 00:28:04,240 --> 00:28:08,600 Speaker 5: are not guessing one. So the way that when you 419 00:28:08,680 --> 00:28:11,960 Speaker 5: run this experiment, essentially what you see is the majority 420 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:17,879 Speaker 5: of people guess something like fifty times two thirds times 421 00:28:17,880 --> 00:28:20,440 Speaker 5: two thirds, so they'd make it to level two and 422 00:28:20,480 --> 00:28:21,119 Speaker 5: then they stop. 423 00:28:23,160 --> 00:28:27,320 Speaker 3: I played this game once in the Financial Times with 424 00:28:27,680 --> 00:28:31,680 Speaker 3: two business class tickets from London to the US as 425 00:28:31,720 --> 00:28:37,360 Speaker 3: a prize, and the winning guess was thirteen. So there 426 00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:44,600 Speaker 3: were lots of zero ones and they didn't win. There 427 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:46,960 Speaker 3: were a bunch of ninety nine. 428 00:28:46,720 --> 00:28:48,840 Speaker 2: And one hundred they didn't understand the game. 429 00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:53,959 Speaker 3: No, they were jerks trying to skew the numbers. Yeah, 430 00:28:54,160 --> 00:28:59,520 Speaker 3: and they were all from Oxford and they were trying 431 00:28:59,560 --> 00:29:05,200 Speaker 3: to pull it all. They weren't disguising they all had 432 00:29:05,280 --> 00:29:10,480 Speaker 3: the same dorm address. But but but it was one 433 00:29:10,560 --> 00:29:15,960 Speaker 3: guest per person. So my tas and I were the 434 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:21,760 Speaker 3: judges and we had thirteen hundred entrance. But yeah, so again, 435 00:29:21,880 --> 00:29:24,280 Speaker 3: this is the sort of thing that we can do 436 00:29:24,360 --> 00:29:28,880 Speaker 3: in class. If you do it with NBA students, you're 437 00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:31,520 Speaker 3: going to get a number in the teams when. 438 00:29:31,400 --> 00:29:33,160 Speaker 4: Thirteen eight something like that. 439 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,560 Speaker 5: The more so kind of oh I've taken economics, they'll 440 00:29:36,640 --> 00:29:40,080 Speaker 5: go like eight, Oh, I haven't taken economics. 441 00:29:39,800 --> 00:29:41,320 Speaker 4: Thirteen sixteen. 442 00:29:41,440 --> 00:29:44,080 Speaker 5: So it's it's always above one, and it just mattered. 443 00:29:44,120 --> 00:29:46,040 Speaker 5: You can see these spikes in the data. That's the 444 00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:47,200 Speaker 5: craziest part about it. 445 00:29:47,600 --> 00:29:50,600 Speaker 3: So, you know, I've written a paper with one of 446 00:29:50,600 --> 00:29:55,240 Speaker 3: my former students showing that the NFL draft is subject to. 447 00:29:55,160 --> 00:29:58,280 Speaker 2: This literally where I wanted to take this inside world. 448 00:29:58,720 --> 00:30:01,760 Speaker 3: You know, esp is one one of my one of 449 00:30:01,800 --> 00:30:06,680 Speaker 3: my skills. Arry, So, uh, well, you probably are all 450 00:30:06,680 --> 00:30:09,680 Speaker 3: familiar with the NFL draft that the end of the season, 451 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:14,320 Speaker 3: the worst team gets the first pick of the eligible players. 452 00:30:14,840 --> 00:30:19,840 Speaker 3: What you may not know is there's a chart that 453 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:25,080 Speaker 3: the Dallas Cowboys first created, one of the one of 454 00:30:25,080 --> 00:30:30,880 Speaker 3: the owners that plots what somebody thought was the should 455 00:30:30,920 --> 00:30:35,000 Speaker 3: be the prices to trade picks. So, for example, you 456 00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:38,000 Speaker 3: can trade the first pick for the seventh and eighth picks, 457 00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:43,080 Speaker 3: or for half a dozen second round picks. And what 458 00:30:43,120 --> 00:30:46,600 Speaker 3: we show in that paper is the early picks are 459 00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:48,400 Speaker 3: massively overvalued. 460 00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:51,920 Speaker 2: And where where does the value show up? Round twound? 461 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:57,640 Speaker 3: Yeah, round two. Now, even bigger anomaly is you can 462 00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:03,480 Speaker 3: trade this year's pick for next year. And the rule 463 00:31:03,520 --> 00:31:08,560 Speaker 3: of thumb is if you trade a second round pick 464 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:10,640 Speaker 3: this year, you get a first round pick next year. 465 00:31:11,080 --> 00:31:16,040 Speaker 3: So you move up one round per year. And we 466 00:31:16,240 --> 00:31:19,640 Speaker 3: calculated that's a discount rate of one hundred and thirty 467 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:20,360 Speaker 3: seven percent. 468 00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:22,680 Speaker 2: Really, why such a big discount, right? 469 00:31:23,000 --> 00:31:27,920 Speaker 3: Because owners want to win. Now, we have one former 470 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:32,720 Speaker 3: franchise owner in the room, and I'm pretty sure he 471 00:31:32,880 --> 00:31:36,720 Speaker 3: didn't get his money by borrowing at one hundred and 472 00:31:36,760 --> 00:31:42,640 Speaker 3: thirty seven percent. But and NFL teams are even more 473 00:31:42,680 --> 00:31:48,200 Speaker 3: expensive than NBA teams, But that it's still they still 474 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:53,000 Speaker 3: have that rule. And we're in the process of replicating 475 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:56,560 Speaker 3: that study, and it's. 476 00:31:56,440 --> 00:32:03,320 Speaker 2: All exactly So this conversation reminds me of the discussion 477 00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:09,760 Speaker 2: that took place after Michael Lewis's Moneyball. So everyone's familiar 478 00:32:09,840 --> 00:32:12,200 Speaker 2: with the book about the Oakland A's and how they 479 00:32:13,160 --> 00:32:20,560 Speaker 2: brought a essentially behavioral economic approach to selecting players. What 480 00:32:20,720 --> 00:32:23,040 Speaker 2: happened after that book came out. 481 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:27,760 Speaker 3: Well, it's interesting. I mean, one thing happened is I 482 00:32:27,800 --> 00:32:31,520 Speaker 3: got in touch with Michael Lewis, and we didn't know 483 00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:35,800 Speaker 3: each other at the time, but through his publisher or something, 484 00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:38,240 Speaker 3: I said, if you ever in Chicago, let me know 485 00:32:38,720 --> 00:32:43,080 Speaker 3: I'm there next week. And we've become very good friends 486 00:32:43,240 --> 00:32:47,760 Speaker 3: and have come to realize that sports analytics and behavioral 487 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:53,680 Speaker 3: economics are the same field. It's trying why, well, what 488 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:59,960 Speaker 3: was Billy Bean, who also lives in our northern California. 489 00:33:00,120 --> 00:33:02,800 Speaker 3: What was Billy trying to do? He was trying to 490 00:33:02,880 --> 00:33:10,640 Speaker 3: buy a team more cheaply than others by And it's 491 00:33:10,760 --> 00:33:13,320 Speaker 3: just like being a portfolio manager, you're trying to buy 492 00:33:13,800 --> 00:33:18,800 Speaker 3: undervalued stocks. He was trying to buy undervalued players. Michael 493 00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:22,360 Speaker 3: got so interested in this he ended up writing the 494 00:33:22,400 --> 00:33:26,000 Speaker 3: book The Undoing Project which is a great book. It's 495 00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:31,560 Speaker 3: about my mentors, Danny Kahneman and named mister Vsky. He 496 00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:35,800 Speaker 3: did stick an irrelevant chapter in the beginning about Darryl Moury. 497 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:42,360 Speaker 2: But anyway, the line I was looking to pull from 498 00:33:42,400 --> 00:33:46,080 Speaker 2: you is not for nothing, Michael. But what you're writing 499 00:33:46,160 --> 00:33:51,680 Speaker 2: about these two Israeli psychologists have been writing about and 500 00:33:51,760 --> 00:33:57,600 Speaker 2: experimenting with for years. Moneyball directly led to your relationship 501 00:33:57,640 --> 00:33:59,680 Speaker 2: with him and that becoming a book as well. 502 00:33:59,760 --> 00:34:03,920 Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, And I mean it's about the biases from 503 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:08,760 Speaker 3: psychology and it's also about markets, right, So the difference 504 00:34:08,800 --> 00:34:15,719 Speaker 3: between behavioral economics and psychology is markets. So a psychologist 505 00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:22,200 Speaker 3: would be interested in the fact that teams are overconfident 506 00:34:22,360 --> 00:34:26,520 Speaker 3: in their ability to tell good players from bad. That's 507 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:30,920 Speaker 3: pure psychology. The fact that it gets reflected in the 508 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:33,399 Speaker 3: market for picks, that's economics. 509 00:34:34,560 --> 00:34:37,359 Speaker 2: So let me push back a little bit on this 510 00:34:37,960 --> 00:34:42,239 Speaker 2: and The Winner's Curse in that all the topics that 511 00:34:42,320 --> 00:34:46,359 Speaker 2: you write about in The Winner's Curse oil leases where 512 00:34:46,400 --> 00:34:48,520 Speaker 2: we don't know what the future oil production will be, 513 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:51,600 Speaker 2: first round draft picks where we don't know how that 514 00:34:51,640 --> 00:34:54,640 Speaker 2: player is going to perform, and in the market's either 515 00:34:54,719 --> 00:34:59,080 Speaker 2: picking stocks, or picking fund managers to pick stocks, or 516 00:34:59,080 --> 00:35:01,560 Speaker 2: picking somebody to pick the fund managers in a fund 517 00:35:01,600 --> 00:35:05,520 Speaker 2: of fund to pick stocks. They all seem to deal with, Hey, 518 00:35:05,600 --> 00:35:09,520 Speaker 2: we really are unaware of how this is going to 519 00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:14,200 Speaker 2: play out, and we're making decisions under uncertainty. All of 520 00:35:14,239 --> 00:35:17,000 Speaker 2: this comes back to economin and Suvarski. 521 00:35:19,239 --> 00:35:23,960 Speaker 3: Well, I'm not gonna I'm not going to disagree with that. 522 00:35:24,280 --> 00:35:28,680 Speaker 3: I mean, look, I became a behavioral economist when I 523 00:35:28,840 --> 00:35:33,879 Speaker 3: discovered them. I claim that was my big discovery, was 524 00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,920 Speaker 3: discovering these two psychologists who were over in Israel that 525 00:35:38,040 --> 00:35:42,920 Speaker 3: economists hadn't heard of. And I went and spent a 526 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:45,719 Speaker 3: year at Stanford where when I got winned that they 527 00:35:45,760 --> 00:35:51,440 Speaker 3: were going to be there and basically stalked them. 528 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:54,120 Speaker 5: Well, a lot of the phenomenon they go away when 529 00:35:54,120 --> 00:35:57,919 Speaker 5: there's not a lot of uncertainty. The winner's course needs uncertainty. Right, 530 00:35:58,080 --> 00:35:59,960 Speaker 5: If we know what the value of the plot is, 531 00:36:00,560 --> 00:36:02,399 Speaker 5: there's no winner's curse. It doesn't matter how many people 532 00:36:02,400 --> 00:36:03,040 Speaker 5: are bidding. 533 00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:03,520 Speaker 4: If we know. 534 00:36:03,760 --> 00:36:07,280 Speaker 5: So, there's a famous anchoring effect, right, So if I 535 00:36:07,360 --> 00:36:10,040 Speaker 5: the anchoring effect is essentially you know, you ask a 536 00:36:10,120 --> 00:36:12,400 Speaker 5: question like how many countries are in Africa before but 537 00:36:12,440 --> 00:36:14,600 Speaker 5: before I do it, I spin a big wheel, right. 538 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:16,280 Speaker 4: The wheel has nothing to do with the question. 539 00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:20,600 Speaker 5: And the wheel gets to like seventeen or eight or whatever, 540 00:36:20,880 --> 00:36:24,040 Speaker 5: and it turns out wherever that number gets to affects 541 00:36:24,120 --> 00:36:26,239 Speaker 5: how what number of people gets about the number of 542 00:36:26,280 --> 00:36:28,760 Speaker 5: countries in Africa. But if people know the number of countries, 543 00:36:28,760 --> 00:36:30,960 Speaker 5: they're not going to be affected by the wheel. Right, 544 00:36:31,040 --> 00:36:33,560 Speaker 5: So all of this has to do Almost every single 545 00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:37,760 Speaker 5: behavioral economic phenomenon has is bred and. 546 00:36:37,800 --> 00:36:39,920 Speaker 4: Fed through uncertainty. 547 00:36:39,960 --> 00:36:42,000 Speaker 5: And I think the way that people react to that 548 00:36:42,080 --> 00:36:45,719 Speaker 5: uncertainty and shape their preferences and beliefs, that's where all 549 00:36:45,719 --> 00:36:48,879 Speaker 5: the biases seep in in the first place. When I'm 550 00:36:48,880 --> 00:36:52,960 Speaker 5: certain when experts know what they're doing, when they're you know, 551 00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:55,080 Speaker 5: they know the value of the plot, they know what 552 00:36:55,440 --> 00:36:57,840 Speaker 5: you know, the whether the stock is going to go 553 00:36:57,960 --> 00:36:59,799 Speaker 5: up or down, there's not a lot of biases to. 554 00:36:59,800 --> 00:37:06,520 Speaker 3: Talk, you know. One aspect of this that surprised me 555 00:37:08,520 --> 00:37:14,760 Speaker 3: is in the sports world, teams have learned but really slowly. 556 00:37:15,400 --> 00:37:22,560 Speaker 3: I mean it's like shockingly slowly. When the three point 557 00:37:22,600 --> 00:37:27,359 Speaker 3: shot was introduced in basketball, Darryl Moorey, I always tease him. 558 00:37:27,400 --> 00:37:30,960 Speaker 3: He's the general manager of the Philadelphia seventy six ers. 559 00:37:31,160 --> 00:37:33,680 Speaker 3: I always tease him that he was the first guy 560 00:37:33,719 --> 00:37:37,120 Speaker 3: who figured out that three is one point five times two, 561 00:37:37,840 --> 00:37:41,840 Speaker 3: So you should take three point shots because they have 562 00:37:41,880 --> 00:37:44,680 Speaker 3: a higher expected value. Every team has somebody who can 563 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:48,560 Speaker 3: make forty of their three point shots, and they make 564 00:37:48,600 --> 00:37:51,800 Speaker 3: about half their two point shots. But if you look, 565 00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:54,920 Speaker 3: Larry Bird was really good at making three point shots, 566 00:37:54,920 --> 00:37:58,880 Speaker 3: and he took two or three a game. Steph takes twenty. 567 00:37:59,040 --> 00:38:03,279 Speaker 3: He's a little better than Larry Bird. But now if 568 00:38:03,320 --> 00:38:09,919 Speaker 3: you look at that trend, it's really shallow, and it's 569 00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:14,839 Speaker 3: the same as football. Teams have learned to punt. 570 00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:18,600 Speaker 2: Less but still sill on fourth down. 571 00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:21,879 Speaker 3: They should go for it on fourth down. They get 572 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:27,080 Speaker 3: it right now half the time they and the closer 573 00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:31,200 Speaker 3: they get to if they get over the fifty yard line, 574 00:38:31,239 --> 00:38:33,680 Speaker 3: they're more likely to get it right. But they're still terrible. 575 00:38:34,080 --> 00:38:38,560 Speaker 3: So the learning is slow, and the reason is people 576 00:38:38,600 --> 00:38:40,600 Speaker 3: don't like to look like fools. 577 00:38:40,920 --> 00:38:43,719 Speaker 2: There was a Wall Street Journal article about I don't 578 00:38:43,760 --> 00:38:46,360 Speaker 2: remember it was a high school or a college coach 579 00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:48,520 Speaker 2: who always went for an on fourth down. 580 00:38:48,719 --> 00:38:50,800 Speaker 3: Yeah, and I love that guy. 581 00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:51,680 Speaker 2: Ten years ago. 582 00:38:51,719 --> 00:38:55,720 Speaker 3: Right, yeah, twenty years ago. Probably he didn't have a kicker. 583 00:38:56,280 --> 00:39:01,160 Speaker 3: He didn't have any Yeah, even he he didn't have 584 00:39:01,200 --> 00:39:05,640 Speaker 3: a field goal kicker or a punter. Now it's this 585 00:39:05,719 --> 00:39:10,960 Speaker 3: is obviously the case for high school because think about 586 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:14,480 Speaker 3: you gotta hike it back to some kid. He has 587 00:39:14,560 --> 00:39:17,120 Speaker 3: to catch it, he has to put it down, and 588 00:39:17,160 --> 00:39:19,839 Speaker 3: then the other kid has to kick it, and the 589 00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:25,960 Speaker 3: weather's lousy. So he just had no kickers and he 590 00:39:26,680 --> 00:39:30,440 Speaker 3: was winning the state championship in Arkansas, I mean, not 591 00:39:30,640 --> 00:39:36,560 Speaker 3: some place with lousy football. So teams will get better. 592 00:39:36,680 --> 00:39:40,600 Speaker 3: People do learn, But you know, people are always asking 593 00:39:40,640 --> 00:39:43,480 Speaker 3: me what surprised me. What has surprised me is how 594 00:39:43,600 --> 00:39:48,799 Speaker 3: slowly the learning has taken place in Look, how long 595 00:39:48,840 --> 00:39:51,399 Speaker 3: did it take it's the World Series? How long did 596 00:39:51,400 --> 00:39:55,200 Speaker 3: it take them to add a pitch clock? Baseball had 597 00:39:55,200 --> 00:39:59,200 Speaker 3: become unwatchable. They add a pitchclock, It cuts half hour 598 00:39:59,239 --> 00:40:02,320 Speaker 3: off the game. Well, you know that's not a genius. 599 00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:07,120 Speaker 3: They had twenty four second clock in basketball for forty years, 600 00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:09,160 Speaker 3: so they could have figured this out. 601 00:40:10,040 --> 00:40:12,360 Speaker 4: But it's not just sports. 602 00:40:12,400 --> 00:40:15,120 Speaker 5: I think, like the thing that economists push back with 603 00:40:15,160 --> 00:40:18,319 Speaker 5: behavioral economics, it's oh, people just don't know, have opportunities 604 00:40:18,360 --> 00:40:22,439 Speaker 5: to learn right in the endowment effect. If they trade enough, 605 00:40:22,480 --> 00:40:24,680 Speaker 5: if people know what they're doing for long, even for 606 00:40:24,719 --> 00:40:26,640 Speaker 5: a short period of time, they'll figure it out. These 607 00:40:26,640 --> 00:40:29,279 Speaker 5: biases are going to go away. That's the whole Like, look, 608 00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:31,480 Speaker 5: these are just confused subjects. They go to the market, 609 00:40:31,480 --> 00:40:34,319 Speaker 5: they'll get some feedback, everything will be fine. But I 610 00:40:34,360 --> 00:40:37,080 Speaker 5: think that's the biggest I think with Richard being surprised, 611 00:40:37,120 --> 00:40:40,320 Speaker 5: I think not just in sports everywhere that these anomalies 612 00:40:40,360 --> 00:40:42,480 Speaker 5: have held up, and the fact that these anomalies are 613 00:40:42,520 --> 00:40:46,239 Speaker 5: holding up in very, very experienced people. So in the 614 00:40:46,239 --> 00:40:49,319 Speaker 5: paper with traders, you know there, we find that they 615 00:40:49,440 --> 00:40:52,040 Speaker 5: trade really well when they're buying, but on the selling 616 00:40:52,080 --> 00:40:53,920 Speaker 5: they have to do a lot of selling. They sell 617 00:40:53,960 --> 00:40:56,160 Speaker 5: all the time, they have to sell it order to buy. 618 00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:58,920 Speaker 5: They sell all the time. Some of them have years, 619 00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:02,160 Speaker 5: decades of experience, and they're doing worse than random and 620 00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:03,080 Speaker 5: they're selling well. 621 00:41:03,200 --> 00:41:05,720 Speaker 2: Explain that, because that was what was so brilliant about 622 00:41:05,719 --> 00:41:10,760 Speaker 2: that paper. In order to figure out how well they sold, 623 00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:14,360 Speaker 2: you guys came up with the solution of let's randomly 624 00:41:14,440 --> 00:41:18,759 Speaker 2: sell anything else from that manager's holdings and compare it 625 00:41:18,800 --> 00:41:21,800 Speaker 2: to what they actually sold, right, so what are the results? 626 00:41:21,880 --> 00:41:24,640 Speaker 5: The results are, so we basically said, look, we want 627 00:41:24,680 --> 00:41:27,520 Speaker 5: to give these guys a large benefit of the doubt. 628 00:41:27,640 --> 00:41:29,880 Speaker 5: We don't know what their conditions are, so we're just 629 00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:33,439 Speaker 5: going to compare them to a very very easy counterfactual. 630 00:41:33,840 --> 00:41:35,400 Speaker 5: I don't know what they're facing. I'm just going to 631 00:41:35,440 --> 00:41:38,120 Speaker 5: throw a dart in their portfolio and sell that instead. 632 00:41:38,400 --> 00:41:42,520 Speaker 5: And they did worse than random. And basically what we 633 00:41:42,560 --> 00:41:45,359 Speaker 5: found is that they were they didn't have they weren't 634 00:41:45,360 --> 00:41:48,239 Speaker 5: spending a lot of time on the selling decisions. 635 00:41:48,320 --> 00:41:49,960 Speaker 4: We interviewed them and we said, like, what are you 636 00:41:49,960 --> 00:41:52,480 Speaker 4: guys doing. It's like, ah, selling is not really that important. 637 00:41:52,520 --> 00:41:53,960 Speaker 4: It's not really an investment decision. 638 00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:58,600 Speaker 5: And I'm like, you know, all right, I told my 639 00:41:59,040 --> 00:42:01,719 Speaker 5: friends at the University Chicago finance department. They were very 640 00:42:01,760 --> 00:42:07,440 Speaker 5: surprised that selling wasn't an investment decision, and so they 641 00:42:07,440 --> 00:42:09,239 Speaker 5: were just not really paying attention to it. So they 642 00:42:09,239 --> 00:42:11,719 Speaker 5: were just selling the things that were very very salient 643 00:42:11,800 --> 00:42:14,279 Speaker 5: on their screens and the things that they were least 644 00:42:14,320 --> 00:42:17,359 Speaker 5: attached to. So going back to the endowment effect, they 645 00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:19,680 Speaker 5: were selling the things that they had recently bought, but 646 00:42:19,719 --> 00:42:22,560 Speaker 5: if you're good at buying, that's not what you should 647 00:42:22,600 --> 00:42:23,040 Speaker 5: be selling. 648 00:42:23,840 --> 00:42:26,000 Speaker 4: You should be holding onto that for longer to get 649 00:42:26,040 --> 00:42:26,880 Speaker 4: that alpha out. 650 00:42:27,400 --> 00:42:30,240 Speaker 5: And we actually we have a graph in the paper 651 00:42:30,280 --> 00:42:32,399 Speaker 5: called like the alpha decay graph and it was about 652 00:42:32,480 --> 00:42:34,600 Speaker 5: nine months and they were selling it around six. 653 00:42:35,239 --> 00:42:40,200 Speaker 3: You know, we all have blind spots. And you just 654 00:42:40,280 --> 00:42:44,360 Speaker 3: wrote a book recently, you have a chapter on selling 655 00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:48,640 Speaker 3: because of Alex. If I hadn't written that paper, you 656 00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:50,320 Speaker 3: wouldn't have had a chapter on selling. 657 00:42:50,440 --> 00:42:52,080 Speaker 2: I would have had a different chapter. It wouldn't have 658 00:42:52,080 --> 00:42:52,600 Speaker 2: been as good. 659 00:42:53,200 --> 00:42:58,320 Speaker 3: Or there are no articles about selling, basically very few, 660 00:42:58,680 --> 00:43:01,120 Speaker 3: very few. So if you look at the Journal of 661 00:43:01,200 --> 00:43:06,759 Speaker 3: Finance or one of the other top journals, there'll be 662 00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:11,360 Speaker 3: one hundred articles of the form. Use the following three 663 00:43:11,360 --> 00:43:15,279 Speaker 3: criteria a former portfolio, hold for one year, then sell. 664 00:43:16,560 --> 00:43:21,440 Speaker 3: And these guys said, oh, maybe selling could be interesting 665 00:43:22,160 --> 00:43:26,960 Speaker 3: and they could maybe double their alpha if they're selling 666 00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:29,719 Speaker 3: decisions or as good as they're buying decisions. 667 00:43:30,360 --> 00:43:35,200 Speaker 2: Coming up, we continue our live conversation with doctor Richard 668 00:43:35,239 --> 00:43:38,880 Speaker 2: Taylor and doctor Alex Emos, both of the Booth School 669 00:43:38,920 --> 00:43:43,560 Speaker 2: of Business at the University of Chicago, discussing the newest 670 00:43:43,880 --> 00:44:02,760 Speaker 2: edition of their book The Winner's Curse. I'm Barry Ridults. 671 00:44:02,760 --> 00:44:06,759 Speaker 2: You're listening to Bloomberg's Masters in Business. Let's continue our 672 00:44:06,880 --> 00:44:11,960 Speaker 2: live conversation with Richard Taylor and Alex EMUs discussing the 673 00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:16,799 Speaker 2: new edition of the book The Winner's Curse. Well, we 674 00:44:17,000 --> 00:44:20,880 Speaker 2: talked about this last time we discussed this issue. The 675 00:44:21,000 --> 00:44:27,040 Speaker 2: buys are very quantitative and rigorous. The cells are just squishy, 676 00:44:27,160 --> 00:44:31,040 Speaker 2: and every emotional bias that comes in, Oh, this is 677 00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:34,440 Speaker 2: starting to falter. It's not doing what I expected. Something 678 00:44:34,440 --> 00:44:37,879 Speaker 2: else shiny comes along and catches their attention. They need 679 00:44:37,920 --> 00:44:43,200 Speaker 2: to make room in the portfolio. You mentioned blind spots. 680 00:44:44,000 --> 00:44:47,279 Speaker 2: Your friend Danny Koneman used to talk about. I used 681 00:44:47,280 --> 00:44:50,600 Speaker 2: to ask him on occasion, how do you avoid all 682 00:44:50,640 --> 00:44:54,000 Speaker 2: of these biases we all succumb to? And he's like, 683 00:44:54,160 --> 00:44:56,359 Speaker 2: I'm subject to every one of them. We all have 684 00:44:56,960 --> 00:45:01,120 Speaker 2: a bias, blind spot. There's no getting a way from it. 685 00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:02,120 Speaker 2: Is there hope for us? 686 00:45:02,680 --> 00:45:05,960 Speaker 3: Well, the only way you can learn anything is feedback, 687 00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:12,760 Speaker 3: and most of us don't bother, so we don't get 688 00:45:12,800 --> 00:45:21,760 Speaker 3: the feedback. And you know when when my friend Caide, 689 00:45:21,920 --> 00:45:24,359 Speaker 3: my former student that I did the football paper with, 690 00:45:24,880 --> 00:45:28,600 Speaker 3: we were hired for a while by one of the 691 00:45:28,680 --> 00:45:34,319 Speaker 3: NFL teams, and we're they're showing us around their facility 692 00:45:35,280 --> 00:45:39,440 Speaker 3: and we go and there's some room about the size 693 00:45:39,440 --> 00:45:43,080 Speaker 3: of this, full of file cabinets, and we say, what's 694 00:45:43,120 --> 00:45:49,600 Speaker 3: in there? Oh, old scouting reports. Our eyes are getting back, 695 00:45:49,880 --> 00:45:56,719 Speaker 3: you know, like, well, have you ever studied those? No? Right, 696 00:45:56,920 --> 00:46:02,280 Speaker 3: so you know that they have. They have probably twenty 697 00:46:02,360 --> 00:46:09,040 Speaker 3: scouts going around watching games. They've built a two billion 698 00:46:09,160 --> 00:46:14,120 Speaker 3: dollar taj Mahele Stadium. But do they invest a little 699 00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:19,480 Speaker 3: research in improving the process of picking players? No, And 700 00:46:19,760 --> 00:46:23,800 Speaker 3: I must say most firms are not that much better. 701 00:46:24,920 --> 00:46:31,200 Speaker 3: Really well, firms still do interviews, interviews. 702 00:46:31,320 --> 00:46:33,960 Speaker 2: Symphonies are doing blind auditions. 703 00:46:33,520 --> 00:46:35,600 Speaker 3: Yeah, they but they still listen. 704 00:46:38,200 --> 00:46:40,440 Speaker 2: Yes, so arguably. 705 00:46:41,560 --> 00:46:46,040 Speaker 3: Interview look, and I think a great musician can here 706 00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:54,280 Speaker 3: whether you're playing well or poorly, learning anything useful about 707 00:46:54,440 --> 00:46:57,000 Speaker 3: how somebody is going to do on the job from 708 00:46:57,600 --> 00:47:01,719 Speaker 3: the usual job. Interview is very. 709 00:47:01,920 --> 00:47:02,800 Speaker 4: One of our postdocs. 710 00:47:02,800 --> 00:47:06,479 Speaker 5: Actually, as a paper Brian Dreberian on So he worked 711 00:47:06,480 --> 00:47:10,080 Speaker 5: with a company in the Philippines. They replaced all first 712 00:47:10,160 --> 00:47:16,880 Speaker 5: round interviews with artificial intelligence, and retention ended up increasing. Basically, 713 00:47:16,920 --> 00:47:18,879 Speaker 5: they were able to extract the signals that they needed 714 00:47:18,920 --> 00:47:21,600 Speaker 5: to extract at that stage, and the humans were missing. 715 00:47:21,719 --> 00:47:24,359 Speaker 2: So let's talk about this before we're going to open 716 00:47:24,440 --> 00:47:26,520 Speaker 2: up this up for questions in a minute. But let's 717 00:47:26,560 --> 00:47:31,239 Speaker 2: talk about that sort of choice architecture, and I just 718 00:47:31,280 --> 00:47:35,200 Speaker 2: have to share some numbers with people as to how 719 00:47:35,239 --> 00:47:42,640 Speaker 2: significant this could be. Richard's book Nudge described a variety 720 00:47:42,680 --> 00:47:48,160 Speaker 2: of different ways to affect decision making. Perhaps the most 721 00:47:48,200 --> 00:47:50,840 Speaker 2: significant was when you open a four oh one K, 722 00:47:51,840 --> 00:47:55,000 Speaker 2: there's no obligation for you to participate in the company. 723 00:47:55,400 --> 00:47:57,879 Speaker 2: When money goes into it, there's no obligation to put 724 00:47:57,920 --> 00:48:02,520 Speaker 2: that money to work. Sure convinced the SEC and the 725 00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:06,160 Speaker 2: government to change that so that the default is that 726 00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:10,080 Speaker 2: you're assumed to participate and the money goes into some 727 00:48:11,000 --> 00:48:14,600 Speaker 2: qualified fund, either a balance fund or a target date fund. 728 00:48:15,200 --> 00:48:18,520 Speaker 2: And to just put some flesh on how significant that is, 729 00:48:19,600 --> 00:48:23,720 Speaker 2: the US's four oh one K, not counting today's trading action, 730 00:48:24,320 --> 00:48:29,560 Speaker 2: is four point seven trillion dollars. Historically, forty percent of 731 00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:34,040 Speaker 2: that was defaulted to cash, which means there's two trillion 732 00:48:34,120 --> 00:48:37,680 Speaker 2: dollars being invested today that otherwise would have been sitting 733 00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:40,680 Speaker 2: around in cash for god knows how many years. So, 734 00:48:40,960 --> 00:48:45,200 Speaker 2: given what we know about choice architecture, how should we 735 00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:49,840 Speaker 2: be addressing choices and options, whether it's in hiring or 736 00:48:49,880 --> 00:48:53,320 Speaker 2: putting money to work or bidding in auctions? How should 737 00:48:53,360 --> 00:48:55,000 Speaker 2: what should we be doing well better? 738 00:48:55,440 --> 00:48:59,960 Speaker 3: I mean there's so you know. Let on the retire 739 00:49:00,160 --> 00:49:05,200 Speaker 3: and saving thing. We did three things. One was changed 740 00:49:05,239 --> 00:49:11,040 Speaker 3: the default, and we had to get congressional approval for 741 00:49:11,160 --> 00:49:16,120 Speaker 3: all of this because companies said, oh, if we enroll 742 00:49:16,239 --> 00:49:20,000 Speaker 3: somebody without their permission, some lawyer is going to sue 743 00:49:20,080 --> 00:49:25,279 Speaker 3: us as soon as the market goes down. So we 744 00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:27,320 Speaker 3: were able to get a bill passed in two thousand 745 00:49:27,360 --> 00:49:31,640 Speaker 3: and six that said it was okay to automatically enroll, 746 00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:35,800 Speaker 3: it was okay to invest in something I could target 747 00:49:35,880 --> 00:49:38,759 Speaker 3: day fund even though it could go down, and it 748 00:49:38,880 --> 00:49:44,000 Speaker 3: was okay to slowly ramp up their contributions what I 749 00:49:44,040 --> 00:49:47,520 Speaker 3: call save more tomorrow because we all have more self 750 00:49:47,560 --> 00:49:59,080 Speaker 3: control next week. So that you know, those three ingredients 751 00:49:59,640 --> 00:50:05,800 Speaker 3: were important. Maybe that for trillion is twice what it 752 00:50:05,840 --> 00:50:10,360 Speaker 3: would have been without it. It's it's not easy to 753 00:50:10,680 --> 00:50:15,120 Speaker 3: just say, you know, what, what can you do to 754 00:50:16,920 --> 00:50:28,520 Speaker 3: solve obesity or some other problem. My mantra is make 755 00:50:28,600 --> 00:50:33,719 Speaker 3: it easy. If you want people to do something, make 756 00:50:33,800 --> 00:50:38,000 Speaker 3: it easy. I always say, what I would like is 757 00:50:38,080 --> 00:50:42,840 Speaker 3: a world that's like GPS. I have a terrible sense 758 00:50:42,840 --> 00:50:49,040 Speaker 3: of direction, and now I don't get lost hardly ever. Right, 759 00:50:49,200 --> 00:50:52,040 Speaker 3: And notice the GPS doesn't tell you where to go. 760 00:50:53,600 --> 00:50:57,520 Speaker 3: You had the wrong address coming tonight. So but but 761 00:50:57,960 --> 00:51:02,200 Speaker 3: I plugged in the right address. You know, well I 762 00:51:02,320 --> 00:51:04,799 Speaker 3: just had to walk down Fifth Avenue. But even I 763 00:51:04,840 --> 00:51:10,520 Speaker 3: could do that. But right, So for complicated things like 764 00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:18,560 Speaker 3: improving your diet or exercising more, or whatever problem you're 765 00:51:18,600 --> 00:51:24,600 Speaker 3: trying to solve, you have to figure out what's preventing 766 00:51:24,800 --> 00:51:29,600 Speaker 3: people from getting it right and then eliminate that. And 767 00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:35,760 Speaker 3: you know, when when David Cameron was elected Prime Minister 768 00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:41,200 Speaker 3: in the UK, he had get this. They have They 769 00:51:41,239 --> 00:51:47,440 Speaker 3: don't have platforms, they have manifestos. And they had told 770 00:51:47,520 --> 00:51:50,919 Speaker 3: me that they were going to put in their manifesto 771 00:51:51,320 --> 00:51:53,520 Speaker 3: that if they got elected they were going to create 772 00:51:54,000 --> 00:51:57,879 Speaker 3: a nudge unit. And I said, yeah, yeah, because I'm 773 00:51:58,000 --> 00:52:02,759 Speaker 3: used to the US. So but they did it, and 774 00:52:02,800 --> 00:52:05,359 Speaker 3: they called me up and said, hey, we're starting this thing. 775 00:52:05,400 --> 00:52:08,040 Speaker 3: You better come over and figure out how to do this. 776 00:52:08,960 --> 00:52:14,600 Speaker 3: And the main lesson I learned was we'd go to 777 00:52:14,680 --> 00:52:18,799 Speaker 3: the branch. One of the things we did was we 778 00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:23,120 Speaker 3: changed the way they dealt with people who owe money 779 00:52:23,120 --> 00:52:27,640 Speaker 3: on their taxes. And what do you do, Well, we 780 00:52:27,719 --> 00:52:30,560 Speaker 3: send a letter. What does the letter say? Oh, well, 781 00:52:30,600 --> 00:52:32,719 Speaker 3: they showed us the letter. Oh I think we can 782 00:52:32,760 --> 00:52:37,160 Speaker 3: improve the letter. So and we told them truthfully, ninety 783 00:52:37,160 --> 00:52:41,800 Speaker 3: percent of people paid their taxes on time. That increased 784 00:52:41,920 --> 00:52:47,520 Speaker 3: the speed, so brought in money very fast. Costs nothing, Right, 785 00:52:47,600 --> 00:52:50,640 Speaker 3: they're sending a letter. It doesn't cost anymore to write 786 00:52:50,640 --> 00:52:57,480 Speaker 3: a good letter. But you have to talk to the 787 00:52:57,600 --> 00:53:03,680 Speaker 3: experts and understand what it is that's preventing them from 788 00:53:03,960 --> 00:53:06,120 Speaker 3: doing the right thing, and then make it easy for 789 00:53:06,200 --> 00:53:07,759 Speaker 3: them to do that. 790 00:53:07,960 --> 00:53:10,480 Speaker 2: Remove the obstacles, make it easy. All right, So we 791 00:53:10,560 --> 00:53:13,319 Speaker 2: have a few more minutes. Let's get some questions. Can 792 00:53:13,360 --> 00:53:16,279 Speaker 2: I see some hands? Wait for the mic. Let's start 793 00:53:16,360 --> 00:53:18,399 Speaker 2: right up front and work our way back. 794 00:53:20,320 --> 00:53:24,560 Speaker 6: Thank you so much for super interesting discussion. I'm curious 795 00:53:24,680 --> 00:53:28,840 Speaker 6: Robert Oman has a theory that says that reasonable people 796 00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:32,720 Speaker 6: can't disagree, and I'm curious, like how you would relate 797 00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:34,960 Speaker 6: that to the winner's person if you've ever had a 798 00:53:35,000 --> 00:53:35,520 Speaker 6: discussion with. 799 00:53:35,560 --> 00:53:39,120 Speaker 3: Him about that. Reasonable people can't disagree. 800 00:53:39,360 --> 00:53:40,440 Speaker 2: He's never been online. 801 00:53:40,480 --> 00:53:46,640 Speaker 3: I mean, you know, Alex and I are both extremely reasonable. 802 00:53:47,000 --> 00:53:49,680 Speaker 3: We disagree, we disagree on all kinds of things. 803 00:53:49,840 --> 00:53:52,359 Speaker 5: Well, his theorem is basically, if you have the same 804 00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:55,840 Speaker 5: information set, you have to arrive in the same belief 805 00:53:56,880 --> 00:54:00,479 Speaker 5: the same information you need, common knowledge, you need. 806 00:54:00,560 --> 00:54:03,120 Speaker 2: You need com each other's rationality. 807 00:54:03,239 --> 00:54:05,000 Speaker 3: You don't need the same confition. 808 00:54:05,560 --> 00:54:10,080 Speaker 5: But and then you arrive at the exact same posterior belief. 809 00:54:10,360 --> 00:54:10,560 Speaker 3: Right. 810 00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:14,239 Speaker 5: But the problem is that people have confirmation bias in 811 00:54:14,280 --> 00:54:18,799 Speaker 5: the real world, right, so they seek out information that 812 00:54:18,880 --> 00:54:22,000 Speaker 5: confirms their beliefs. So they end up not only uh, 813 00:54:22,239 --> 00:54:24,799 Speaker 5: they basically end up in completely different worlds thinking that 814 00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:27,560 Speaker 5: they're rational and somebody else who's not agreeing with them 815 00:54:27,880 --> 00:54:32,560 Speaker 5: is irrational. And that if you go back to Robert Auman, 816 00:54:33,080 --> 00:54:37,760 Speaker 5: that breaks that that condition for being able to agree. 817 00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:39,799 Speaker 5: So one of the things about the Internet age and 818 00:54:39,840 --> 00:54:43,279 Speaker 5: digital the digital transformation is that look, if you read 819 00:54:43,520 --> 00:54:46,120 Speaker 5: like the texts of what technologists we're writing, we're going 820 00:54:46,200 --> 00:54:49,840 Speaker 5: to be in a utopia, millions of library of Alexandria's 821 00:54:49,880 --> 00:54:52,759 Speaker 5: at our fingertip. Everybody will have all information at the 822 00:54:52,800 --> 00:54:57,399 Speaker 5: same time. We should all agree, right, but we're not 823 00:54:57,440 --> 00:55:00,800 Speaker 5: there yet, we have all the information, we are there yet. 824 00:55:00,920 --> 00:55:03,360 Speaker 3: But what ended up happening agreeing? 825 00:55:03,760 --> 00:55:06,839 Speaker 5: But it's because people are seeking information that confirms their 826 00:55:06,880 --> 00:55:09,759 Speaker 5: priors and confirms the priors of the people that they're 827 00:55:09,920 --> 00:55:12,960 Speaker 5: the and and because you can't think that your prior 828 00:55:13,080 --> 00:55:15,440 Speaker 5: is wrong if you could, if you meet somebody with 829 00:55:15,480 --> 00:55:18,120 Speaker 5: a different prior or a different belief, you assume that 830 00:55:18,160 --> 00:55:21,400 Speaker 5: they are irrational. And then we're not going to agree. 831 00:55:21,400 --> 00:55:22,880 Speaker 5: I'm going to hold out to my belief. You're going 832 00:55:22,920 --> 00:55:25,520 Speaker 5: to hold onto your belief. And the more this kind 833 00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:29,560 Speaker 5: of ramps up, the ability to anddogenously gather information and 834 00:55:29,880 --> 00:55:34,560 Speaker 5: the feeding of that process from the information providers gets 835 00:55:34,600 --> 00:55:35,240 Speaker 5: worse and worse. 836 00:55:36,480 --> 00:55:40,600 Speaker 2: The fascinating part about the stock market is all the 837 00:55:40,640 --> 00:55:43,560 Speaker 2: economic data is out there, all the market analysis is 838 00:55:43,560 --> 00:55:47,240 Speaker 2: out there. Bulls and bears go out and they find 839 00:55:47,320 --> 00:55:53,239 Speaker 2: what supports their view. They rarely seek disconfirming advice. And hey, 840 00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:57,160 Speaker 2: trade is where there's a disagreement on value, button agreement 841 00:55:57,160 --> 00:56:00,279 Speaker 2: on price, and it's all the same information people check 842 00:56:00,320 --> 00:56:01,200 Speaker 2: pick And. 843 00:56:00,960 --> 00:56:04,600 Speaker 3: Perhaps the biggest anomaly in financial markets is the volume 844 00:56:04,640 --> 00:56:05,480 Speaker 3: of trade. 845 00:56:05,520 --> 00:56:07,400 Speaker 4: That people are trading from place. 846 00:56:07,400 --> 00:56:10,799 Speaker 3: That that's the counter example, how can we have a 847 00:56:10,800 --> 00:56:20,880 Speaker 3: trillion shares traded if everybody agrees? Yeah, right, the mic right. 848 00:56:21,680 --> 00:56:23,360 Speaker 2: So this is actually a related question. 849 00:56:24,080 --> 00:56:26,520 Speaker 7: You've heard a paper in nineteen ninety seven on the 850 00:56:26,560 --> 00:56:29,759 Speaker 7: equity premium puzzle. You finished it by saying, you have 851 00:56:29,800 --> 00:56:32,279 Speaker 7: any issues with this, call me in twenty seventeen. So 852 00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:35,600 Speaker 7: in twenty seventeen, two fourth years at the University of 853 00:56:35,640 --> 00:56:38,200 Speaker 7: Chicago studied economics. Email do you try to call you 854 00:56:38,239 --> 00:56:41,920 Speaker 7: on your bluff? You met with them, which me and 855 00:56:41,920 --> 00:56:46,160 Speaker 7: my now husband do appreciate, and we both work in 856 00:56:46,200 --> 00:56:49,799 Speaker 7: finance now and I am curious, especially you mentioned, like 857 00:56:49,920 --> 00:56:53,680 Speaker 7: the volume of trading Democratization of trading Robin Hood Traders. 858 00:56:54,160 --> 00:56:57,200 Speaker 7: As you're refreshing this book more broadly, how is technology 859 00:56:57,760 --> 00:57:00,920 Speaker 7: changed or magnified some of the behavioral confects that you 860 00:57:00,960 --> 00:57:03,359 Speaker 7: were writing about in nineteen ninety two. 861 00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:10,520 Speaker 3: So, of course I vividly remember this. And there's a 862 00:57:10,560 --> 00:57:16,920 Speaker 3: bridge over in here, Brooklyn, you know the So you're right, 863 00:57:16,920 --> 00:57:20,520 Speaker 3: there was a chapter. It wasn't a chapter in the 864 00:57:20,520 --> 00:57:23,280 Speaker 3: original book, but I did write a column on the 865 00:57:23,280 --> 00:57:26,840 Speaker 3: equity premium puzzle and then a paper about it, and 866 00:57:26,880 --> 00:57:30,920 Speaker 3: we talked about whether it included. Instead, we just have 867 00:57:31,680 --> 00:57:36,479 Speaker 3: a couple pages saying the equity premium is within one 868 00:57:36,560 --> 00:57:40,920 Speaker 3: percent of what it was when the first paper was published. 869 00:57:41,280 --> 00:57:44,360 Speaker 3: It's going from seven down to six or something like that. 870 00:57:44,800 --> 00:57:50,560 Speaker 3: So it didn't seem worth a chapter. But I'll let Alex, 871 00:57:50,840 --> 00:57:55,680 Speaker 3: who's the now part talk about the technology. 872 00:57:56,440 --> 00:57:59,240 Speaker 5: Yeah, So I think the democracy you mentioned the democratization 873 00:57:59,280 --> 00:58:02,000 Speaker 5: of finance, and I think there was this hope that again, 874 00:58:02,200 --> 00:58:07,400 Speaker 5: you know, people have access to basically there's no transaction fees, 875 00:58:07,440 --> 00:58:09,560 Speaker 5: you log onto your phone, you have access to these 876 00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:12,760 Speaker 5: equities and financial products that you didn't have access before. 877 00:58:13,040 --> 00:58:16,400 Speaker 5: So now everyday people have you know, can can get 878 00:58:16,400 --> 00:58:18,040 Speaker 5: a piece of the pie. They can get a piece 879 00:58:18,040 --> 00:58:20,440 Speaker 5: of the real growth of the economy. So some of 880 00:58:20,440 --> 00:58:23,560 Speaker 5: our colleagues wrote a paper at the University of Chicago recently. 881 00:58:23,680 --> 00:58:24,680 Speaker 4: I think he came out. 882 00:58:24,480 --> 00:58:28,520 Speaker 5: This year doing an audit of what people are trading 883 00:58:28,560 --> 00:58:33,680 Speaker 5: on platforms like Robinhood. They're trading weekly options and they're 884 00:58:33,720 --> 00:58:37,240 Speaker 5: losing billions of dollars. I think within the last two 885 00:58:37,280 --> 00:58:42,320 Speaker 5: years they lost six billion dollars, right, and so, and 886 00:58:42,480 --> 00:58:45,560 Speaker 5: why is that? Well, the same sort of biases that 887 00:58:45,600 --> 00:58:48,160 Speaker 5: you have that you're documenting them lap that you document 888 00:58:48,240 --> 00:58:51,840 Speaker 5: in the field, they're on steroids in digital spaces. Right. 889 00:58:51,880 --> 00:58:54,600 Speaker 4: What is robinhood doing? Where is it making its money? 890 00:58:54,600 --> 00:58:58,840 Speaker 5: Because the Robinhood does make money, it's making it on spreads, right, 891 00:58:59,200 --> 00:59:04,080 Speaker 5: and the itis spreads are crazy instruments like options that 892 00:59:04,480 --> 00:59:07,720 Speaker 5: generate these lottery like returns that we know human people 893 00:59:07,720 --> 00:59:10,840 Speaker 5: are really attracted to. And so it's making money off 894 00:59:10,840 --> 00:59:13,560 Speaker 5: of behavioral biases and people are losing a lot of 895 00:59:13,560 --> 00:59:14,120 Speaker 5: money on it. 896 00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:17,320 Speaker 2: So it's not even the weekly options, it's the single 897 00:59:17,400 --> 00:59:19,720 Speaker 2: day options now have become the biggest volume. 898 00:59:20,920 --> 00:59:27,000 Speaker 3: Right. And of course pure gambling sports gambling is even 899 00:59:27,040 --> 00:59:28,320 Speaker 3: worse odds. 900 00:59:29,400 --> 00:59:32,440 Speaker 2: Where you can bet on every play, not even the 901 00:59:32,440 --> 00:59:33,400 Speaker 2: outcome of the well. 902 00:59:33,520 --> 00:59:37,640 Speaker 3: And now they're learning that these bets on what a 903 00:59:37,720 --> 00:59:41,600 Speaker 3: specific player does, they've got to get rid of those 904 00:59:41,880 --> 00:59:44,800 Speaker 3: because there's just going to be too many scandals. 905 00:59:45,600 --> 00:59:48,959 Speaker 2: That was my live conversation with Richard Taylor and Aleximus. 906 00:59:49,680 --> 00:59:52,040 Speaker 2: Be sure and check out the full version of this 907 00:59:52,160 --> 00:59:55,680 Speaker 2: coming sometime in the coming months. I would be remiss 908 00:59:55,720 --> 00:59:57,880 Speaker 2: if I didn't thank the Cracked team that helps put 909 00:59:57,920 --> 01:00:02,400 Speaker 2: these conversations together. A special thanks goes to the Economic 910 01:00:02,440 --> 01:00:06,240 Speaker 2: Club of New York for hosting this event. My audio 911 01:00:06,280 --> 01:00:11,080 Speaker 2: engineer is Justin Milner. Anna Luke is my producer. Sean 912 01:00:11,160 --> 01:00:15,880 Speaker 2: Russo is my researcher. I'm Barry Renaults. You've been listening 913 01:00:15,920 --> 01:00:20,480 Speaker 2: to a bonus live edition of Masters in Business on 914 01:00:20,600 --> 01:00:21,560 Speaker 2: Bloomberg Radio.