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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Narrative Economics by Yale University

4.8
stars
585 ratings

About the Course

Dear Potential Learner, Please take some time to read through this note before deciding to enroll. This course, Narrative Economics, is relatively short and proposes a simple concept: we need to incorporate the contagion of narratives into our economic theory. You can think of narratives as stories that shape public beliefs, which in turn influence our decision making. Understanding how people arrived at certain decisions in the past can aid our understanding of the economy today and improve our forecasts of the future. Popular thinking heavily influences our answers to questions such as how much to invest, how much to spend or save, whether to go to college or take a certain job, and many more. Narrative economics is the study of the viral spread of popular narratives that affect economic behavior. I believe incorporating these ideas into our research must be done both to improve our ability to anticipate and prepare for economic events and help us structure economic institutions and policy. Until we better incorporate it into our methods of analysis and forecasting, we remain blind to a very real, very palpable, very important mechanism for economic change. Even in the dawning age of the Internet and artificial intelligence, so long as people remain ultimately in control, human narratives will matter. Maybe they will especially matter as the new technology exploits human weaknesses and creates new venues for narrative contagion. If we do not understand the epidemics of popular narratives, we cannot fully understand changes in the economy and in economic behavior. The course is broken into 4 modules: Part I introduces basic concepts and demonstrates how popular stories change over time to affect economic outcomes, including recessions, depressions and inequality as well as effective inspiration and growth.. These stories can be observed from diverse sources such as politics, the media, or even popular songs. Part II seeks to answer why some stories go viral, while others are quickly forgotten, by defining our narrative theory more firmly. This module enumerates and explores a list of seven propositions to help discipline any analysis of economic narratives. Part III examines nine perennial narratives that have proved their ability to influence important economic decisions. They include narratives regarding artificial intelligence, stock market bubbles, and job insecurity. Part IV looks to the future and highlights the opportunities for consilience in Narrative Economics. We share some thoughts about where narratives are taking us at this point in history and what kind of future research could improve our understanding of them. This course offers only the beginnings of a new idea and a few suggestions for how it could be used by economists and financial professionals. The tone is not prescriptive or authoritative, as perhaps my Coursera course, Financial Markets, is in places. It represents the beginning of the journey (epidemic). This course is my way of floating the “germ” of this idea out into the broader community of not only professionals but of anyone who is interested in discovering how and why things become “important” to us as a society. I hope some of you will become infected by this idea, mutate it, spread it, and advance it. The beginning of the journey is the easy part. The challenge will come in taking these concepts to the next level. We have the tools to incorporate narratives into our research and the moral obligation to act; only the work remains. - Robert J. Shiller...

Top reviews

AV

Jun 6, 2023

A very insightful and approachable course about the effects of human biases over the economic landscape and how social trends tend to leave a permanent mark on history and exact sciences like finance.

LA

Mar 10, 2024

I really enjoyed this course, it opened my eyes so much and I might keep going even though I only took this course out of fun, I was very interested in this topic. lucky me it Was interesting! Thanks

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51 - 75 of 171 Reviews for Narrative Economics

By Kevin E B S

Apr 25, 2023

Muy detallado y preciso, este curso es recomendable si te interesan los efectos económicos vistos desde la perspectiva, causas y consecuencias de una narrativa implícita en ese preciso tiempo.

By Jose A

Apr 18, 2023

Great intro to using Google Ngrams, excellent historical context for presenting the argument of narrative causality effects on trends, popular opinion and societal shifts.

By JAVIER F V

Aug 25, 2023

I really liked the subject and the format of the classes and above all the teacher, I found him to be very professional and at the same time very approachable.

By Sina Z

Jul 31, 2023

Great professor and great content. The topics inspired me to start thinking differently about economic and personal narratives. I highly recommend this course.

By Paola L

Jul 25, 2023

Very interesting and inspiring course with an outstanding Professor.

Prof. Shiller made me passionate about finance and economics (and it was not so

Thank you.

By Rejeena s t

Aug 16, 2023

Thank you so much yale university. I AM VERY THANKFUL TO YOUR GREAT EFFORTS ON YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN MY STUDIES . Which lead my career to start a journey.

By Sujatha R

Jul 5, 2023

Thanks Prof Robert Shiller for putting together this wonderful course and offering it for free. I really enjoyed learning about Narrative Economics.

By Eric O

Jul 10, 2024

I really enjoyed the course and content. It was well produced and I feel like I gained some good perspective on several economic principles.

By Richard S

Feb 1, 2024

Prof. Shiller presented an interesting way to look at economic issues. This is a much more approachable way of viewing economic problems.

By M. W S

Aug 7, 2023

Prof. Robert Shiller is something more than an economist. It's my dream to attend some of his live classes. He's extremely elegant person.

By Stella L

Jul 4, 2023

It is great to see world-renowned economist adopting an MDT approach in understanding economic phenomena and do economic forecasting.

By Niloufar A

May 20, 2024

professor shiller is truly one of the Bests! I really enjoy learning from him as he has an unique and lovely way to explain things.

By Rajrupa S

Jun 22, 2023

I just loved the course, it is extremely insightful and really pushes you ti see major economic events through a new lenses

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By Emily W

Sep 12, 2023

Absolutely fascinating and delightful. Very engaging lessons, excellent resources, and highly effected quizzes and tests.

By Nakul S

Jan 16, 2024

This was an interesting course to learn the basics of what factors influence the narratives shaping our world.

By sia b

Jul 10, 2023

Completely delightful, informative and inspiring! I'd pay to see a lecture of his in-person, when possible.

By Manuel J P M

May 8, 2023

Interesting point of view of the influence of some ideas, social movements and tendency in the economy

By Kaushik P

Jun 24, 2023

Excellent course. Articulates efficiently the big picture scenarios that influence everyday economics.

By Eileen D

Jun 22, 2024

Robert Shiller is one of the leading economists in the United States. I really enjoyed this course.

By Greg L

Jun 2, 2023

Another really neat informative class on Finance from Robert Shiller! glad I took the time to do it

By Marc j C

May 14, 2023

Great course. Very related to the stock market, explains a lot a reasons why stocks soar and fall.

By Chinazam I

Aug 30, 2024

This was a very informative course which has ended being useful to me and I work as a journalist.

By Michael R

Jul 2, 2023

Exceptional course. While a simple theory, it provided far more in-depth content than I imagined.

By Johnny S

Apr 22, 2023

I am fan of mr. Shiller's courses. You can learn tremendous things in his courses. Thanks a lot.

By Habeeb A F

Oct 5, 2023

It was enlightening to learn how "Narrative Economics" have been driving Consumer Behaviour !