"Identity Economics" provides an important and compelling new way to understand human behavior, revealing how our identities - and not just economic incentives - influence our decisions. In 1995, economist Rachel Kranton wrote future Nobel Prize-winner George Akerlof a letter insisting that his most recent paper was wrong. Identity, she argued, was the missing element that would help to explain why people - facing the same economic circumstances - would make different choices. This was the beginning of a fourteen-year collaboration - and of "Identity Economics". The authors explain how our conception of who we are and who we want to be may shape our economic lives more than any other factor, affecting how hard we work, and how we learn, spend, and save. Identity economics is a new way to understand people's decisions - at work, at school, and at home. With it, we can better appreciate why incentives like stock options work or don't; why some schools succeed and others don't; why some cities and towns don't invest in their futures - and much, much more. "Identity Economics" bridges a critical gap in the social sciences. It brings identity and norms to economics. People's notions of what is proper, and what is forbidden, and for whom, are fundamental to how hard they work, and how they learn, spend, and save. Thus people's identity - their conception of who they are, and of who they choose to be - may be the most important factor affecting their economic lives. And the limits placed by society on people's identity can also be crucial determinants of their economic well-being.

喬治·阿剋洛夫（George A. Akerlof），加州大學伯剋利分校 “科什蘭”講席經濟學教授，2001年諾貝爾經濟學奬得主。阿剋洛夫得到承認是因為他的研究藉鑒瞭社會學、心理學、人類學以及其他學科以確定經濟學的影響和結果。專業領域包括宏觀經濟學、貧睏問題、傢庭問題、犯罪、歧視、貨幣政策和德國統一問題。

瑞鞦·剋蘭頓（Rachel E. Kranton），杜剋大學經濟學教授。剋萊頓緻力於研究社會製度對經濟的影響與結果。專業領域包括經濟發展、國際經濟學和工業組織。