On Nudging: A Review of Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein

Robert Sugden

International Journal of the Economics of Business, 2009, vol. 16, issue 3, 365-373

Abstract: This paper reviews the case for libertarian paternalism presented by Thaler and Sunstein in Nudge. Thaler and Sunstein argue that individuals' preferences are often incoherent, making paternalism is unavoidable; however, paternalistic interventions should 'nudge' individuals without restricting their choices, and should nudge them towards what they would have chosen had they not been subject to specific limitations of rationality. I argue that the latter criterion provides inadequate guidance to nudgers. It is inescapably normative, and so allows nudgers' conceptions of well-being to override those of nudgees. Even if nudgees' rationality were unbounded, their revealed preferences might still be incoherent.

Keywords: Libertarian Paternalism; Soft Paternalism; Nudging (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

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DOI: 10.1080/13571510903227064

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