Nudging Public Policy: Examining the Benefits and Limitations of Paternalistic Public Policies

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Published by Bloomsbury Publishing in Economy, Polity, and Society

This book asks several critical questions relevant to those interested in public policy: What is a nudge? What are the ethical implications of and justifications for nudges? Are we able to have nudges without affecting one’s freedom to choose? In what institutional context are nudges likely to work well and in what context are they likely to fail? The text explores several real-world instances of government attempts at successful choice architecture across a wide range of policy topics: internet privacy laws, environmental policy, education policy, the sharing economy, and creating a national culture.

This approach also highlights the spontaneous and evolutionary nature of social institutions like culture and trust. Attempts from policymakers to generate these social institutions where they did not exist previously are unlikely to succeed unless they are aligned with the unique characteristics of the society in question. This raises the question of whether the seemingly successful policy interventions were even necessary. A few of the chapters in this book directly examine these issues through case studies of both Latin America and Singapore.

Each chapter in this volume explores the ways in which individuals in society respond to attempts by policymakers to “nudge” them towards a specific outcome. Some chapters explore the theoretical arguments in favor of utilizing this behavioral policy approach. Others explore the feasibility and potential limitations of this approach to public policy. Several of the chapters apply market process theory to understand a particular case study where nudge policies have been put into practice. The chapters, authored by an interdisciplinary group of policy scholars, include discussions of internet privacy laws, the sharing economy, education policy, environmental policy, as well as social issues such as trust and culture.

Contents

Introduction
Rosemarie Fike, Stefanie Haeffele, and Arielle John 

Chapter 1: Irrationality is not Unreasonable: Behavioral Economics, Rationality, and Implications for Public Policy
Mario J. Rizzo

Chapter 2: What Is a Nudge?
Jeffrey Bristol 

Chapter 3: Why Nudges Should Be Local and Decentralized
Katarina Hall 

Chapter 4: Incentivized Migration in Colonial Contexts: The Challenge of Asymmetric Information in Public Policy Nudges
Oliver McPherson-Smith 

Chapter 5: Nudge, Nations, and Cultural Change: The Process of Identity Formation in Singapore
Erin Dunne 

Chapter 6: Nudging Lobbyists to Register with Online Registration and Grace Periods
James M. Strickland 

Chapter 7: Nudging Choices in Education Policy
Shannon Lee 

Chapter 8: Public Policy, the Environment, and the Use of Green Nudges
Cynthia Boruchowicz 

Chapter 9: The Paradoxes of the Privacy Paradox
Will Rinehart 

Chapter 10: Nudging, Trust, and the “Sharing Economy” in Latin America
Luis H. Lozano-Paredes