Now available, please visit: www.coursera.org/learn/narrative-economics
Narrative Economics is the study of economic change due to changes in the way people think. The vast majority of people change the way they think because of changing narratives, tellable stories with morals, not by looking at data, equations, or diagrams. Most economists don’t study this but it is all but assured that mass changes in thinking patterns are driven by narratives that “go viral” and become part of the public consciousness. Professor Shiller, proposes studying these narratives — stories — is the most important thing we can do now to improve economic forecasts, inform major economic decisions and understand economic events.