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Yale University

Narrative Economics

Dear Potential Learner, Please take some time to read through this note before deciding to enroll. This course, Narrative Economics, is relatively short and proposes a simple concept: we need to incorporate the contagion of narratives into our economic theory. You can think of narratives as stories that shape public beliefs, which in turn influence our decision making. Understanding how people arrived at certain decisions in the past can aid our understanding of the economy today and improve our forecasts of the future. Popular thinking heavily influences our answers to questions such as how much to invest, how much to spend or save, whether to go to college or take a certain job, and many more. Narrative economics is the study of the viral spread of popular narratives that affect economic behavior. I believe incorporating these ideas into our research must be done both to improve our ability to anticipate and prepare for economic events and help us structure economic institutions and policy. Until we better incorporate it into our methods of analysis and forecasting, we remain blind to a very real, very palpable, very important mechanism for economic change. Even in the dawning age of the Internet and artificial intelligence, so long as people remain ultimately in control, human narratives will matter. Maybe they will especially matter as the new technology exploits human weaknesses and creates new venues for narrative contagion. If we do not understand the epidemics of popular narratives, we cannot fully understand changes in the economy and in economic behavior. The course is broken into 4 modules: Part I introduces basic concepts and demonstrates how popular stories change over time to affect economic outcomes, including recessions, depressions and inequality as well as effective inspiration and growth.. These stories can be observed from diverse sources such as politics, the media, or even popular songs. Part II seeks to answer why some stories go viral, while others are quickly forgotten, by defining our narrative theory more firmly. This module enumerates and explores a list of seven propositions to help discipline any analysis of economic narratives. Part III examines nine perennial narratives that have proved their ability to influence important economic decisions. They include narratives regarding artificial intelligence, stock market bubbles, and job insecurity. Part IV looks to the future and highlights the opportunities for consilience in Narrative Economics. We share some thoughts about where narratives are taking us at this point in history and what kind of future research could improve our understanding of them. This course offers only the beginnings of a new idea and a few suggestions for how it could be used by economists and financial professionals. The tone is not prescriptive or authoritative, as perhaps my Coursera course, Financial Markets, is in places. It represents the beginning of the journey (epidemic). This course is my way of floating the “germ” of this idea out into the broader community of not only professionals but of anyone who is interested in discovering how and why things become “important” to us as a society. I hope some of you will become infected by this idea, mutate it, spread it, and advance it. The beginning of the journey is the easy part. The challenge will come in taking these concepts to the next level. We have the tools to incorporate narratives into our research and the moral obligation to act; only the work remains. - Robert J. Shiller

Status: Storytelling
Status: Behavioral Economics
BeginnerCourse6 hours

Featured reviews

T

5.0Reviewed May 4, 2025

Prof. Robert Shiller's course was very engaging and interesting..thanks to him I could complete this informative memorable course.

AM

5.0Reviewed Mar 31, 2023

A short and inspiring course to pay more attention what goes on in the world, to stop and think if the narrative is a repetition and what impact it might have on today & tomorrow.

RT

5.0Reviewed Aug 15, 2023

Thank you so much yale university. I AM VERY THANKFUL TO YOUR GREAT EFFORTS ON YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN MY STUDIES . Which lead my career to start a journey.

JF

5.0Reviewed Apr 26, 2025

Another fantastic course by Prof. Shiller. It not only helps increase knowledge of what drives economics but instils a greater knowledge of society through good stories and engaging topics.

LA

5.0Reviewed Mar 10, 2024

I really enjoyed this course, it opened my eyes so much and I might keep going even though I only took this course out of fun, I was very interested in this topic. lucky me it Was interesting! Thanks

SZ

5.0Reviewed Jul 30, 2023

Great professor and great content. The topics inspired me to start thinking differently about economic and personal narratives. I highly recommend this course.

AV

5.0Reviewed Jun 6, 2023

A very insightful and approachable course about the effects of human biases over the economic landscape and how social trends tend to leave a permanent mark on history and exact sciences like finance.

RS

5.0Reviewed Jun 21, 2023

I just loved the course, it is extremely insightful and really pushes you ti see major economic events through a new lenses..

EO

5.0Reviewed Jul 9, 2024

I really enjoyed the course and content. It was well produced and I feel like I gained some good perspective on several economic principles.

MS

5.0Reviewed Aug 6, 2023

Prof. Robert Shiller is something more than an economist. It's my dream to attend some of his live classes. He's extremely elegant person.

SR

5.0Reviewed Jul 4, 2023

Thanks Prof Robert Shiller for putting together this wonderful course and offering it for free. I really enjoyed learning about Narrative Economics.

RH

4.0Reviewed Jun 27, 2023

This short course is not as useful as Prof. other class Financial Markets but thank you for introducing the new concept for narrative economics to me

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