Our character traits make it possible to predict a wide range of economic behaviour, from success in terms of academic performance to that on the labour market. Today economics, along with psychology, helps us to understand how our identity and personality is formed.
 

Individuals are often guided by non-economic motivation. Important decisions are inspired by “animal spirits” and tend to amplify macroeconomic fluctuations. One of these instincts, a sudden decline in faith, is at the core of the current recession. Governments have an important role to play in limiting animal spirits and setting the stage. So what should they do now to get out of the crisis?

What will the world be like after the crisis? What rules will make it possible to avoid arriving at the excesses that caused it? The response of someone who has spent her life at the highest levels of the International Monetary Fund.