Daniel Kahneman
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
Daniel Kahneman
Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2002
Born: 5 March 1934, Tel Aviv, British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel)
Died: 27 March 2024
Affiliation at the time of the award: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
Prize motivation: “for having integrated insights from psychological research into economic science, especially concerning human judgment and decision-making under uncertainty”
Prize share: 1/2
Life
Daniel Kahneman was born in Tel Aviv, Israel, while his mother was visiting her extended family. The family’s regular domicile was in Paris, France. After his father’s death in 1944, he moved with his mother and sister to Palestine. He studied psychology at Hebrew University and the University of California, earning his Ph.D. in 1961. Kahneman has been married twice and has two children.
Work
Daniel Kahneman began his prize-awarded research in the late 1960s. In order to increase understanding of how people make economic decisions, he drew on cognitive psychology in relation to the mental process used in forming judgements and making choices. His research on decision-making under uncertainty resulted in the formulation of a new branch of economics, prospect theory.
Inside the mind of an economic sciences laureate
Perspectives on life
Why do we focus on negatives?
Ever wondered how Nobel Prize laureates think about the world? According to 2002 economic sciences laureate Daniel Kahneman, reacting to threats helped us to survive through our evolution history.
Streams during Nobel Week
Watch the 2025 Nobel Prize lectures, Nobel Week Dialogue, the prize award ceremonies in Oslo and Stockholm and Nobel Peace Prize Forum here at nobelprize.org.
