Cristin-resultat-ID: 2148342
Sist endret: 14. desember 2023, 08:37
Resultat
Rapport
2023

Free to Fail? Paternalistic Preferences in the United States

Bidragsytere:
  • Björn Bartling
  • Alexander Wright Cappelen
  • Henning Hermes
  • Marit Skivenes og
  • Bertil Tungodden

Utgiver/serie

Utgiver

Department of Economics, Norwegian School of Economics

Serie

NHH Dept. of Economics Discussion papers
ISSN 0804-6824

Om resultatet

Rapport
Publiseringsår: 2023
Hefte: 09/2023
Antall sider: 56

Klassifisering

Fagfelt (NPI)

Fagfelt: Samfunnsøkonomi
- Fagområde: Samfunnsvitenskap

Beskrivelse Beskrivelse

Tittel

Free to Fail? Paternalistic Preferences in the United States

Sammendrag

We study paternalistic preferences in two large-scale experiments with participants from the general population in the United States. Spectators decide whether to intervene to prevent a stakeholder, who is mistaken about the choice set, from making a choice that is not aligned with the stakeholders’ own preferences. We find causal evidence for the nature of the intervention being of great importance for the spectators’ willingness to intervene. Only a minority of the spectators implement a hard intervention that removes the stakeholder’s freedom to choose, while a large majority implement a soft intervention that provides information without restricting the choice set. This finding holds regardless of the stakeholder’s responsibility for being mistaken about the choice set – whether the source of mistake is internal or external – and in different subgroups of the population. We introduce a theoretical framework with two paternalistic types – libertarian paternalists and welfarists – and show that the two types can account for most of the spectator behavior. We estimate that about half of the spectators are welfarists and that about a third are libertarian paternalists. Our results shed light on attitudes toward paternalistic policies and the broad support for soft interventions.

Bidragsytere

Björn Bartling

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter

Alexander Wright Cappelen

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter
    ved Institutt for samfunnsøkonomi ved Norges Handelshøyskole

Henning Hermes

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter

Marit Skivenes

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter
    ved Institutt for politikk og forvaltning ved Universitetet i Bergen

Bertil Tungodden

  • Tilknyttet:
    Forfatter
    ved Institutt for samfunnsøkonomi ved Norges Handelshøyskole
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