Informational requirements of nudging

Arbeitspapier

A nudge is a non-coercive paternalistic intervention that attempts to improve choices by manipulating the framing of a decision problem. As any paternalism, it faces the difficulty of determining the appropriate welfare criterion. We propose a welfare-theoretic foundation for nudging similar in spirit to the classic revealed preference approach, by investigating a model where preferences and mistakes of an agent have to be elicited from her choices under different frames. We provide characterizations of the classes of behavioral models for which nudging is possible or impossible. For the case where nudging is possible in principle, we derive results on the required quantity of information.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Working Paper ; No. 190

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Microeconomic Policy: Formulation, Implementation, and Evaluation ; Welfare Economics: General ; Asymmetric and Private Information; Mechanism Design
• Subject: nudge ; framing ; behavioral welfare economics

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Benkert, Jean-Michel ; Netzer, Nick
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): University of Zurich, Department of Economics
• (where): Zurich
• (when): 2015

Further information

• DOI: doi:10.5167/uzh-110485
• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/111247
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:45 AM CET