“How about if I call you an undismal scientist?”, I ask Thaler. “Well, I used to be called ‘That Jerk’,” Thaler replies. In this in-depth interview, Liam Halligan talks with Professor Richard Thaler, President of the American Economics Association and the world’s leading behavioural economist.

In 2008, Thaler co-authored his best-selling book “Nudge” – which popularised behavioural economics. By combining economics with other disciplines, particularly pshycholcy, the behavioural school has had a huge policy impact, upending the dismal science. Thayler, as I discovered, is an intellectual firecracker, an economist with a huge personality and an wide range of interests.