Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalis By George Akerlof and Robert Shiller (winners of the Nobel Prize in Economics)

Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy, and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism is a book by renowned economists, George Akerlof and Robert Shiller, written to promote the understanding of the role played by emotions in influencing economic decision making. 

According to the authors, economists have tended to de-emphasize the importance of emotional factors, as the effects of emotions are difficult to model and quantify. The book asserts that a variety of otherwise puzzling questions can be answered once one allows for the effect that emotional drives, or "animal spirits," have on economic factors.

Pages: 230