IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/122374.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Heap-ing on Lippmann: liberalising behavioural public policy

Author

Listed:
  • Oliver, Adam

Abstract

In several articles over the past decade, Shaun Hargreaves Heap has proposed a liberal, constitutional approach to behavioural public policy that conflicts with the paternalistic consequentialist approaches that have dominated the field to date. In recent years, I too have developed a behavioural public policy framework that sits within the classical liberal tradition. Recently, in commenting on my book, A Political Economy of Behavioural Public Policy, Hargreaves Heap identified similarities between my approach and that of the great 20th Century journalist and scholar, Walter Lippmann. In this article, I outline Lippmann’s arguments in his classic book, The Good Society, in some detail, and reach the conclusion that Hargreaves Heap was right in suggesting that I am a Lippmannite. Finally, given that Hargreaves Heap and I share a belief in liberalism, I summarise why I think he is a Lippmannite too.

Suggested Citation

  • Oliver, Adam, 2024. "Heap-ing on Lippmann: liberalising behavioural public policy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 122374, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:122374
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/122374/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hertwig, Ralph, 2017. "When to consider boosting: some rules for policy-makers," Behavioural Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 143-161, November.
    2. Oliver,Adam, 2023. "A Political Economy of Behavioural Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781009282567, November.
    3. Peter J. Boettke & Rosolino Candela, 2019. "Liberalism in Crisis and the Promise of a Reconstructed Liberalism," Journal of Contextual Economics (JCE) – Schmollers Jahrbuch, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin, vol. 139(2–4), pages 189-212.
    4. Oliver,Adam, 2019. "Reciprocity and the Art of Behavioural Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108480208, November.
    5. Robert Sugden, 2008. "Why incoherent preferences do not justify paternalism," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 19(3), pages 226-248, September.
    6. Shaun P. Hargreaves Heap, 2013. "What is the meaning of behavioural economics?," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 37(5), pages 985-1000.
    7. Oliver,Adam, 2019. "Reciprocity and the Art of Behavioural Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108727143, November.
    8. Oliver,Adam, 2023. "A Political Economy of Behavioural Public Policy," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781009282550, November.
    9. Burgin, Angus, 2012. "The Great Persuasion: Reinventing Free Markets since the Depression," Economics Books, Harvard University Press, number 9780674058132, march.
    10. Hargreaves Heap, Shaun P., 2017. "Behavioural public policy: the constitutional approach," Behavioural Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(2), pages 252-265, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Schnellenbach, Jan & Schubert, Christian, 2015. "Behavioral political economy: A survey," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 40(PB), pages 395-417.
    2. Malte Dold, 2023. "Behavioural normative economics: foundations, approaches and trends," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 44(2), pages 137-150, June.
    3. Beiser-McGrath, Liam & Busemeyer, Marius R., 2023. "Carbon inequality and support for carbon taxation," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 120925, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Christian Schubert, 2021. "Opportunity meets self-constitution," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 68(1), pages 51-65, March.
    5. Oliver, Adam, 2023. "A little give and take," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 111558, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Sanjit Dhami & Ali al-Nowaihi & Cass R. Sunstein, 2019. "Heuristics and Public Policy: Decision-making Under Bounded Rationality," Studies in Microeconomics, , vol. 7(1), pages 7-58, June.
    7. Timothy Besley, 2020. "State Capacity, Reciprocity, and the Social Contract," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 88(4), pages 1307-1335, July.
    8. Terri Trireksani & Hadrian Geri Djajadikerta & Muhammad Kamran & Pakeezah Butt, 2024. "The Impact of Country Characteristics on Board Gender Diversity and Sustainability Performance: A Global Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(7), pages 1-25, April.
    9. Ramzi Mabsout, 2022. "John Stuart Mill, soft paternalist," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 58(1), pages 161-186, January.
    10. Malte F. Dold, 2018. "Back to Buchanan? Explorations of welfare and subjectivism in behavioral economics," Journal of Economic Methodology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(2), pages 160-178, April.
    11. Schnellenbach, Jan, 2012. "Nudges and norms: On the political economy of soft paternalism," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 28(2), pages 266-277.
    12. Goddard, Jessica J. & Kallis, Giorgos & Norgaard, Richard B., 2019. "Keeping multiple antennae up: Coevolutionary foundations for methodological pluralism," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 165(C), pages 1-1.
    13. Ekkehard A. Köhler & Daniel Nientiedt, 2023. "Was Walter Eucken a proponent of authoritarian liberalism?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 195(3), pages 363-376, June.
    14. Innset, Ola, 2023. "Dual Argument, Double Truth: On the continued importance of the state in neoliberal thought," SocArXiv kyvdm, Center for Open Science.
    15. Caldwell, Bruce & Montes, Leonidas, 2015. "Friedrich Hayek and his visits to Chile," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 63318, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Schubert, Christian, 2015. "Opportunity And Preference Learning," Economics and Philosophy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 31(2), pages 275-295, July.
    17. Kirchgässner, Gebhard, 2012. "Sanfter Paternalismus, meritorische Güter, und der normative Individualismus," Economics Working Paper Series 1217, University of St. Gallen, School of Economics and Political Science.
    18. Aleksander Rubinstein, 2013. "The theory of patronized goods in the optics of comparative methodology," International Journal of Entrepreneurial Knowledge, Center for International Scientific Research of VSO and VSPP, vol. 1(1), pages 4-32, December.
    19. Robert Sugden, 2011. "The behavioural economist and the social planner: to whom should behavioural welfare economics be addressed?," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2011-21, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    20. Christine Laudenbach & Michael Ungeheuer & Martin Weber, 2023. "How to Alleviate Correlation Neglect in Investment Decisions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(6), pages 3400-3414, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    behavioral economics; behavioral public policy; externalities; liberalism; regulation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A13 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Relation of Economics to Social Values
    • B20 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - General
    • B25 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - History of Economic Thought since 1925 - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Austrian; Stockholm School
    • P00 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - General - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:122374. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.