The Ethical Assessment of Public Policy Nudges: A Three-Dimensional Framework

Ana-Mădălina Bîgu () and Dragoș Bîgu
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Ana-Mădălina Bîgu: A.S.E. - The Bucharest University of Economic Studies / Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti
Dragoș Bîgu: A.S.E. - The Bucharest University of Economic Studies / Academia de Studii Economice din Bucureşti

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Abstract: Although nudges are increasingly used in public policy, and their ethical acceptability has been widely discussed, just a few attempts have been made to build a coherent framework for assessing them. This article argues that a nudge can be assessed by its position on three independent dimensions. Justification concerns what entitles anyone to influence a person: the person's own endorsement, his personal good or the good of others. Reason concerns how the nudge engages the person's capacity to decide rationally, assessed by the accuracy of what it communicates, the proportionality of the weight it gives to considerations and the conditions of deliberation it creates. Resistibility concerns whether the person can know of the nudge and act against it at a reasonable cost. Applied to seven nudging mechanisms, the framework shows how their acceptability depends on the characteristics identified in the second section. The analysis shows that the ethical acceptability of nudges depends also on the details of their implementation.

Keywords: Nudge; Acceptabililty; Public policy; Justification; Rational deliberation; Resistibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-11-04
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