Paternalistic interventions: determinants of demand and supply

Björn Bartling and Krishna Srinivasan

No 469, ECON - Working Papers from Department of Economics - University of Zurich

Abstract: This study investigates the determinants of individuals’ demand for and supply of paternalistic interventions—measures intended to help others avoid mistakes. Based on data from an incentivized experiment conducted with a large U.S. sample, we find that both demand and supply are higher for informational interventions than for those that restrict choice, and when targeted individuals perceive themselves or are per- ceived as more error-prone. Moreover, granting targets the right to withhold consent increases demand. These behavioral patterns, supported by participants’ free-text re- sponses, suggest that both receiving and supplying interventions entail utility costs, particularly when interventions infringe upon personal autonomy. Our findings in- form policy design by highlighting the importance of autonomy-preserving features such as choice options and consent rights in securing public support for paternalistic interventions.

Keywords: Paternalism; interventions; consent rights; policy design (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D60 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-dcm, nep-exp and nep-nud
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/277623/1/econwp469.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:zur:econwp:469

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ECON - Working Papers from Department of Economics - University of Zurich Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Severin Oswald ().