Wirtschaftspolitik und Psychologie: Zum Forschungsprogramm der Behavioral Economics / Psychology and economic policy

Beck Hanno

ORDO. Jahrbuch für die Ordnung von Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, 2009, vol. 60, issue 1, 119-152

Abstract: The new discipline of behavioral economics relies on psychological findings that humans show systematic deviations from rationality − they act altruistically and are concerned about fairness, they behave in a time-inconsistent manner and they don`t have an unlimited capacity for information processing and storage. Based on these findings - the most important ones being described in this paper −, psychologists propose new ideas for politics in various fields: social policy, regulation of financial markets, finance, tax policy, volunteering, promoting reforms and consumer protection − all these fields may benefit from the insights of the new discipline of behavioral economics. The most important application in this field is the idea of a liberal paternalism: In contrast to traditional heavy-handed approaches to paternalism, liberal paternalism aims to improve individual choice without restricting it by making use of some of those behavioral biases. This policy seems to be very smart; nonetheless it brings several problems with it which are being addressed in this paper.

Date: 2009
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DOI: 10.1515/ordo-2009-0108

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