Escaping Paternalism: Rationality, Behavioral Economics, and Public Policy (Cambridge Studies in Economics, Choice, and Society)

by Mario J. Rizzo

Experimental evidence suggests that individuals may systematically deviate from the behavior that would best satisfy their own preferences. The list of alleged deviations from strict rationality includes – but is not limited to – status quo bias, optimism bias, susceptibility to framing effects, poor processing of information, and lack of willpower or self-control. To the extent that these phenomena cause people to make errors, paternalist policies can in principle help them to do better – not by some exogenous standard, but by their own standards. This is the defining feature of new paternalism that distinguishes it from the old: the new paternalists claim to help people better achieve their own preferences, not someone else’s.