US economist Richard Thaler has won the Nobel Prize in economics for his research into how human characteristics affect individual decisions and financial markets, David Gauthier-Villars writes for The Wall Street Journal.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said in a statement announcing the award today that Thaler's work had "built a bridge between the economic and psychological analyses of individual decision-making". It described him as one of the founders of the field of behavioural finance, which has had a profound impact on economic research and policy.