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Behavioral Public Economics: Welfare and Policy Analysis with Non-Standard Decision-Makers

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  • B. Douglas Bernheim
  • Antonio Rangel

Abstract

This paper has two goals. First, we discuss several emerging approaches to applied welfare analysis under non-standard ("behavioral") assumptions concerning consumer choice. This provides a foundation for Behavioral Public Economics. Second, we illustrate applications of these approaches by surveying behavioral studies of policy problems involving saving, addiction, and public goods. We argue that the literature on behavioral public economics, though in its infancy, has already fundamentally changed our understanding of public policy in each of these domains.

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File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w11518.pdf
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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 11518.

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Date of creation: Aug 2005
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:11518
Note: HE PE
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Find related papers by JEL classification:
  • D0 - Microeconomics - - General
  • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
  • D6 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics
  • D9 - Microeconomics - - Intertemporal Choice
  • H0 - Public Economics - - General
  • H1 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government
  • H4 - Public Economics - - Publicly Provided Goods

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