Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral & Drive Major Economic Events

Nobel-prize winning author Robert J Shiller looks at how the birth and dissemination of narratives—that is, stories that claim to explain things—can affect economic activity.  He argues that narratives exercise a powerful influence on human behaviour and can grow to dominate a population (and, equally, can die out) in much the same way as an epidemic disease. He argues that understanding how narratives can affect economic activity will provide a rich seam of future research for economists.  It is area of research whose time has come.  Social media provide a new and powerful means of propagating narratives. At the same time modern methods of data generation and collection have opened up new possibilities for the analysis and understanding of these trends.