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Paternalism, Public Health, And Behavioral Economics: A Problematic Combination, Wendy K. Mariner
Paternalism, Public Health, And Behavioral Economics: A Problematic Combination, Wendy K. Mariner
Faculty Scholarship
Some critiques of public health regulations assume that measures directed at industry should be considered paternalistic whenever they limit any consumer choices. Given the presumption against paternalistic measures, this conception of paternalism puts government proposals to regulate industry to the same stringent proof as clearly paternalist proposals to directly regulate individuals for their own benefit. The result is to discourage regulating industry in ways that protect the public from harm and instead to encourage regulating individuals for their own good -- quite the opposite of what one would expect from a rejection of paternalism. Arguments favoring "soft paternalism" to justify …
Coasean Bargaining In Consumer Bankruptcy, Edward R. Morrison
Coasean Bargaining In Consumer Bankruptcy, Edward R. Morrison
Faculty Scholarship
During my first weeks as a graduate student in economics, a professor described the Coase Theorem as “nearly a tautology:” Assume a world in which bargaining is costless. If there are gains from trade, the Theorem tells us, the parties will trade. The initial assignment of property rights will not affect the final allocation because the parties will bargain (costlessly) to an efficient outcome. “How can that be a theorem?,” I remember thinking at the time.