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When Does Libertarian Paternalism Work?

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Author Info
Bruce Ian Carlin
Simon Gervais
Gustavo Manso

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Abstract

We develop a theoretical model to study the effects of libertarian paternalism on knowledge acquisition and social learning. Individuals in our model are permitted to appreciate and use the information content in the default options set by the government. We show that in some settings libertarian paternalism may decrease welfare because default options slow information aggregation in the market. We also analyze what happens when the government acquires imprecise information about individuals, and characterize its incentives to avoid full disclosure of its information to the market, even when it has perfect information. Finally, we consider a market in which individuals can sell their information to others and show that the presence of default options causes the quality of advice to decrease, which may lower social welfare.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 15139.

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Date of creation: Jul 2009
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:15139

Note: CF LE PE POL
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G18 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Government Policy and Regulation
G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
H11 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Structure and Scope of Government

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This page was last updated on 2009-11-25.


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