Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness (original) (raw)

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

• Get 10 units per month
• Download Article/Chapter or eBook
• 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
• Cancel anytime Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Notes

1. A key point, which I revisit below: Thaler and Sunstein reject plan (4), on grounds that giving consumers what they want is not possible when what they want is not well defined, as illustrated by the cake and fruit preference inversion.
2. Some critics argue that the predictable biases of Homer Economicus are partly a laboratory artifact, and are less evident in the field. See, for example, Levitt and List (2008).
3. For the traditional non-paternalist, in contrast, a policy of misinformation is incoherent, because while information can improve self-regarding individual choice, misinformation cannot. For the non-paternalist, fraud, even well intended fraud, cannot be justified. (See Leonard et al. 2000).
4. Thaler and Sunstein, to their credit, acknowledge these problems.

References

• Kahneman, D. (2007). The sad tale of the aspiration treadmill. http://www.edge.org/q2008/q08_17.html#kahneman.
• Leonard, T. C., Goldfarb, R. S., & Suranovic, S. (2000). Professor New on paternalism and public policy. Economics and Philosophy, 16(2), 323–331.
  Article Google Scholar
• Levitt, S. D., & List, J. A. (2008). Homo economicus evolves. Science, 319, 909–910.
  Article Google Scholar
• Schelling, T. C. (1984). Choice and consequence. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
  Google Scholar
• Sunstein, C. R., & Thaler, R. H. (2003). Libertarian paternalism is not an oxymoron. The University of Chicago Law Review, 70(4), 1159–1202.
  Article Google Scholar

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

1. Department of Economics, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544, USA
   Thomas C. Leonard

Authors

1. Thomas C. Leonard
   You can also search for this author inPubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence toThomas C. Leonard.

Rights and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Leonard, T.C. Richard H. Thaler, Cass R. Sunstein, Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness.Const Polit Econ 19, 356–360 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10602-008-9056-2

Download citation

• Published: 22 August 2008
• Issue Date: December 2008
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10602-008-9056-2