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Full-Text Articles in Law
Nudge Efficiency, Avishalom Tor
Nudge Efficiency, Avishalom Tor
Book Chapters
Only a small portion of the substantial literature on behavioral interventions ("nudges") that developed over the last fifteen to twenty years has considered nudges from an economic perspective. Moreover, despite the importance of the topic for a law and economics assessment of this increasingly common form of regulation, even fewer contributions have examined whether and when behavioral instruments are likely to make an efficient means for increasing social welfare. This chapter therefore offers some basic observations about nudge efficiency: Part I opens with a reminder that behavioral instruments should be implemented only when they are the most efficient means available …
The Private Costs Of Behavioral Interventions, Avishalom Tor
The Private Costs Of Behavioral Interventions, Avishalom Tor
Journal Articles
The increasing popularity of behavioral interventions—also known as nudges—is largely due to their perceived potential to promote public and private welfare at dramatically lower costs than those of traditional regulatory instruments, such as mandates or taxes. Yet, though nudges typically involve low implementation costs, scholars and policymakers alike tend to underestimate their often-substantial private costs. Once these costs are accounted for, most nudges turn out to generate significantly lower net benefits than assumed, and some prove less efficient or less cost-effective than traditional instruments. At other times, the private costs of behavioral interventions are sufficiently large to render them socially …