Mario J. Rizzo

Escaping Paternalism (eBook, PDF)

Rationality, Behavioral Economics, and Public Policy

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

The burgeoning field of behavioral economics has produced a new set of justifications for paternalism. This book challenges behavioral paternalism on multiple levels, from the abstract and conceptual to the pragmatic and applied. Behavioral paternalism relies on a needlessly restrictive definition of rational behavior. It neglects nonstandard preferences, experimentation, and self-discovery. It relies on behavioral research that is often incomplete and unreliable. It demands a level of knowledge from policymakers that they cannot reasonably obtain. It assumes a political process largely immune to the effects of ignorance, irrationality, and the influence of special interests and moralists. Overall, behavioral paternalism underestimates the capacity of people to solve their own problems, while overestimating the ability of experts and policymakers to design beneficial interventions. The authors argue instead for a more inclusive theory of rationality in economic policymaking.

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Erscheinungstermin: 5. Dezember 2019
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781108776158
• Artikelnr.: 66180794

Autorenporträt

Mario J. Rizzo is a professor of Economics, Director of the Foundations of the Market Economy Program, and Co-Director of the Classical Liberal Institute at New York University. He is the co-author of Austrian Economics Re-Examined: The Economics of Time and Ignorance (2014). He has published in such journals as Journal of Legal Studies, the Columbia Law Review and the UCLA Law Review.

Inhaltsangabe

1. Introduction: puppets and puppet masters
2. What is rationality?
3. Rationality for puppets
4. Preference biases
5. The rationality of beliefs
6. Deficient foundations for behavioral policymaking
7. Knowledge problems in paternalist policymaking
8. The political economy of paternalist policymaking
9. Slippery slopes in paternalist policymaking
10. Common threads, escape routes, and paths forward
References
Index.