Allison Schrager
Allison Schrager is an economist, journalist, and author of An Economist Walks into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk. Schrager is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, co-founder of LifeCycle Finance Partners LLC, and a contributing editor at Quartz.
Schrager graduated from Brandeis University with a BA in economics. She holds a postgraduate degree in economics from Université Libre de Bruxelles, and a MA in Latin American Studies and International Economics from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. In 2008, Shrager completed her PhD in economics at Princeton University, where her dissertation won the American Economic Association's 2009 Frank W. Taussig Prize.
Beyond academia, Schrager has held several prominent positions in the fields of economics and finance. She's the senior editor at Money, Mercados y Finanzas, a financial magazine based in Colombia. Prior to that, she was managing director and head of pension strategy for AllianceBernstein. She also worked in fixed income sales at DLJ and derivative research at Donaldson Lufkin Jenrette.
Schrager is also a prolific author, having published various op-eds and articles in well-known publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, The Washington Post, ABC News, and CNN. Her writings focus on economics and the intersection of risk and human behavior.
Schrager’s first major book was An Economist Walks into a Brothel: And Other Unexpected Places to Understand Risk. In this book, Schrager combines behavioral economics and finance to help readers understand how they can manage risk while avoiding faulty decision-making. By applying economic principles to everyday situations and using experiences from brothels, beekeeping, gambling, Casinos and the stock market, she helps the reader to understand the true essence of risk.
The next book in Schrager's oevre is Money origination: Uncovering Hidden Opportunities in Fixed-Income Markets. This book is co-authored with Marina Fogle and Lawrence O'Hanlon. The guide helps analysts understand and analyze fixed-income markets to uncover investment opportunities in this complex environment.
Schrager's most recent book is titled Rational Irrationality: How We Make Decisions. This book explores the complexities of human decision-making and provides an overview of the various biases, motivations and emotions involved in decisions. In it, she examines how our irrational biases can lead to great success and sometimes, disaster. She also provides insight on how knowing and understanding these biases can lead to better decision-making.
Allison Schrager is an economist, journalist, and author whose writings and research dive deep into the complex and interesting world of risk and decision making. Through her books and articles, she has helped to popularize and demystify the intricacies of risk and decisions. She has garnered acclaim for her work and her books have become popular among academics, finance professionals and armchair economists alike.
