Nudge, Boost, or Design? Limitations of behaviorally informed policy under social interaction

Samuli Reijula (), Jaakko Kuorikoski, Timo Ehrig, Konstantinos Katsikopoulos and Shyam Sunder
Additional contact information
Samuli Reijula: University of Helsinki
Jaakko Kuorikoski: University of Tampere
Timo Ehrig: Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences; University of Southern Denmark
Konstantinos Katsikopoulos: Max Planck Institute for Human Development; University of Southampton

Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, 2018, vol. 2, issue 1, 99-105

Abstract: Nudge and boost are two competing approaches to applying the psychology of reasoning and decision making to improve policy. Whereas nudges rely on manipulation of choice architecture to steer people towards better choices, the objective of boosts is to develop good decision-making competences. Proponents of both approaches claim capacity to enhance social welfare through better individual decisions. We suggest that such efforts should involve a more careful analysis of how individual and social welfare are related in the policy context. First, individual rationality is not always sufficient or necessary for improving collective outcomes. Second, collective outcomes of complex social interactions among individuals are largely ignored by the focus of both nudge and boost on individual decisions. We suggest that the design of mechanisms and social norms can sometimes lead to better collective outcomes than nudge and boost, and present conditions under which the three approaches (nudge, boost, and design) can be expected to enhance social welfare.

Keywords: nudge; boost; social welfare; mechanism design; social norm (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D04 D71 D78 D91 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Nudge, Boost, or Design? Limitations of behaviorally informed policy under social interaction (2018)
Working Paper: Nudge, Boost, or Design? Limitations of behaviorally informed policy under social interaction (2018)
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