Nudge
Thaler & Sunstein
The founding text on choice architecture, and why defaults carry so much weight.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
Kahneman
System 1 vs. 2, and why the effortless default usually wins over the rational choice.
Misbehaving
Thaler
How "Save More Tomorrow" went from idea to real retirement policy.
Commitment Devices
Bryan, Karlan & Nelson
The review that defines the lever and why binding your future self works.
Influence
Robert Cialdini
The original case for social proof as one of the strongest levers on behavior.
Predictably Irrational
Dan Ariely
A first tour of the idea that context shapes choice. Read it knowing the field has since split the book's own findings — the zero-price effect held up, the anchoring experiments largely did not, and the honesty studies are retracted or under investigation.
Library.
Poor Economics
Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo
What the lives of the very poor actually look like up close, built out of field experiments rather than theory. It is the book the development pieces in this wing come out of.
Good Economics for Hard Times
Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo
The same two authors on immigration, trade, automation and growth. The line we quote on the home page, that economics is too important to be left to economists, is theirs, and it is from this book.
Why Nations Fail
Daron Acemoglu & James A. Robinson
The argument that a country's institutions, meaning who holds power and who is allowed to benefit from what gets built, explain wealth and poverty better than geography or culture do.
Atomic Habits
James Clear
The popular synthesis: make the cue obvious and stack the new habit onto an old one.
Tiny Habits
BJ Fogg
Fogg's B=MAP model: shrink the behavior until it's too small to skip, and anchor it to a routine you already have.
Digital Minimalism
Cal Newport
The declutter itself. Thirty days off optional tech, then tools earn their way back.
Deep Work
Cal Newport
What the reclaimed attention is actually for.
Indistractable
Nir Eyal
The trigger-by-trigger mechanics of getting pulled away, and the counter-moves.
Flow
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Where the idea of being "in flow" comes from: what full absorption in a task actually is, and the conditions the research found it needs.
Naked Economics
Charles Wheelan
Start here. An introduction to how economists actually think, written for people who have never taken an economics course and are not planning to.
Average Is Over
Tyler Cowen
Cowen's read on what machines do to work: which jobs get more valuable when software can do more of them, which get less, and who ends up on each side of that line.
Other helpful places.
Focus Friend
Hank Green
A bean that guards your focus block.
Visit Focus FriendFreedom
freedom.to
The blocker Cal Newport points to in Digital Minimalism. Friction for the feeds, bought back by the hour.
Visit Freedomhoopla
Midwest Tape
Borrow audiobooks, ebooks and more through your public library. Free with a library card.
Visit hooplaAudible
Amazon
Audiobooks by subscription. Paid, unlike a library card.
Visit AudibleGood Store
Hank and John Green
Hank and John Green's shop. One hundred percent of the profits go to charity.
Visit Good Store
Madrian & Shea (2001)
The Power of Suggestion: Inertia in 401(k) Participation and Savings Behavior
QJE
the working-paper PDF, where the table appearsChoi, Laibson, Madrian & Metrick (2002)
Defined Contribution Pensions: Plan Rules, Participant Choices, and the Path of Least Resistance
Tax Policy and the Economy / NBER
DWP / GOV.UK
Workplace Pension Participation and Savings Trends of Eligible Employees: 2009 to 2022
Official statistics, not a study.
Beshears, Choi, Laibson & Madrian (2018)
Potential vs. Realized Savings Under Automatic Enrollment
TIAA Institute Research Dialogue No. 148
An institute research report, not a peer-reviewed article.
the project page and paperDellaVigna & Linos (2022)
RCTs to Scale
Econometrica
Thaler & Benartzi (2004)
Save More Tomorrow
JPE
Field implementations with self-selected participants, not a randomized trial.
Gollwitzer & Sheeran (2006)
Implementation Intentions and Goal Achievement: A Meta-Analysis of Effects and Processes
Adv. Exp. Soc. Psych. 38:69–119
Superseded by the same authors' 2025 meta-analysis of 642 tests.
the paper, open accessSheeran, Listrom & Gollwitzer (2025)
The when and how of planning: Meta-analysis of the scope and components of implementation intentions in 642 tests
European Review of Social Psychology 36(1):162–194
the paper, open access (PDF)Bélanger-Gravel, Godin & Amireault (2013)
A meta-analytic review of the effect of implementation intentions on physical activity
Health Psychology Review 7(1)
the abstract, with both effect sizesAdriaanse et al. (2011)
Appetite 56(1)
Sheeran (2002)
Intention-behavior relations, as reported in Gollwitzer & Sheeran's implementation-intentions chapter
A figure reported inside Gollwitzer & Sheeran's chapter, not in a paper of its own.
the chapter where the figure is reported (PDF)Carrera, Royer, Stehr, Sydnor & Taubinsky (2018)
The Limits of Simple Implementation Intentions
NBER WP 24959 / Journal of Health Economics
Royer, Stehr & Sydnor (2015)
Incentives, Commitments, and Habit Formation in Exercise
AEJ: Applied Economics 7(3):51–84
the paper's abstractCharness & Gneezy (2009)
Incentives to Exercise
Econometrica 77(3):909–931
The persistence result has not been reproduced by later pre-registered work.
Arad, Gneezy & Mograbi (2023)
Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 205:560–573
Carrera, Royer, Stehr, Sydnor & Taubinsky (2022)
Who Chooses Commitment? Evidence and Welfare Implications
Review of Economic Studies 89(3):1205–1244
Bryan, Karlan & Nelson (2010)
Commitment Devices
Annual Review of Economics
A review article. Also on the Books shelf.
the review
Allcott, Braghieri, Eichmeyer & Gentzkow (2020)
The Welfare Effects of Social Media
American Economic Review 110(3):629–676
the paper (authors’ copy)
Seattle–Denver Income Maintenance Experiment (final report, 1983)
Overview of the Final Report of the Seattle–Denver Income Maintenance Experiment
ASPE, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services
ASPE, U.S. Dept. of Health & Human ServicesEvans & Popova (2014/2017)
Cash Transfers and Temptation Goods
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 6886
World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 6886Vivalt, Rhodes, Bartik, Broockman, Krause & Miller (2024, revised January 2026)
The Employment Effects of a Guaranteed Income: Experimental Evidence from Two U.S. States
NBER Working Paper 32719 · issued July 2024, revised January 2026
NBER Working Paper 32719 · issued July 2024, revised January 2026Banerjee, Hanna, Kreindler & Olken (2017)
Debunking the Stereotype of the Lazy Welfare Recipient: Evidence from Cash Transfer Programs
World Bank Research Observer 32(2)
World Bank Research Observer 32(2)Haushofer & Shapiro (2016)
The Short-Term Impact of Unconditional Cash Transfers to the Poor
Quarterly Journal of Economics 131(4)
Quarterly Journal of Economics 131(4)Card (1990)
The Impact of the Mariel Boatlift on the Miami Labor Market
ILR Review 43(2)
ILR Review 43(2)Borjas (2017a)
The Wage Impact of the Marielitos: A Reappraisal
ILR Review 70(5)
ILR Review 70(5)Peri & Yasenov (2019)
The Labor Market Effects of a Refugee Wave: Applying the Synthetic Control Method to the Mariel Boatlift
NBER Working Paper 21801 · published in the Journal of Human Resources 54(2)
NBER Working Paper 21801 · published in the Journal of Human Resources 54(2)Clemens & Hunt (2019)
The Labor Market Effects of Refugee Waves: Reconciling Conflicting Results
NBER Working Paper 23433 · published in ILR Review 72(4)
NBER Working Paper 23433 · published in ILR Review 72(4)Borjas (2019)
The Wage Impact of the Marielitos: The Role of Race
ILR Review 72(4):858–870
ILR Review 72(4):858–870, published alongside Clemens & HuntCohen & Dupas (2010)
Free Distribution or Cost-Sharing? Evidence from a Randomized Malaria Prevention Experiment
Quarterly Journal of Economics 125(1)
Quarterly Journal of Economics 125(1)