The nudge wars: A modern socialist calculation debate

Devereaux, Abigail

doi:10.1007/s11138-018-0414-7

Cited by 11 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 50 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…If individuals remain free to deviate from the default option, they argue, the libertarian should not be bothered by this paternalistic form of coercive state intervention in the economic system. In contrast, the imputation policies that influence coercive judicial orders (e.g., regulations or taxes) are called hard or socialist paternalism [53,54]. If socialist paternalists consider that the poor often produce suboptimal outcomes by the political decision-makers criteria, coercive state intervention must "help" the poor make their decisions to reduce systematic cognitive biases in the way they think.…”

Section: The Nudge Theory: the Behavioral Development Economics Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Principles of Nudging and Boosting: Steering or Empowering Decision-Making for Behavioral Development Economics

Espinosa

Wang²,

Soto

2022

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Behavioral development economics promotes the nudge theory as a mechanism to incorporate people’s cognitive biases, steering their behavior in the desired direction through coercive state intervention. Cognitive biases become a reason to doubt the efficiency of decision-making psychology in the free market process. A fundamental assumption of this approach is that political decision-makers know the people’s means and ends in ways that protect them from cognitive biases. This article reviews and discusses the nudge theory, based on the boost theory developed by the Austrian School of Economics. The boost theory consists of a comparative institutional perspective to provide the empowerment people need to realize their errors and correct them “on the fly” to cultivate economic development. It is argued that the nudge theory overlooks the cognitive biases of political decision-makers, neglects the comparative perspective of the institutional environment in the face of such biases, and does not consider how construction of on-the-fly judgments works. After reviewing the principles of the nudge theory, its main criticisms from the boost theory are discussed, forming novel conclusions about and research avenues on behavioral development economics, according to the steering or empowering quality of the institutional environment.

show abstract

Section: The Nudge Theory: the Behavioral Development Economics Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Principles of Nudging and Boosting: Steering or Empowering Decision-Making for Behavioral Development Economics

Espinosa

Wang²,

Soto

2022

Sustainability

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A planner with a powerful enough computer could not solve it—although Lange thought this was the case (cf. Devereaux, 2019, p. 148).…”

Section: Polycentric Economic Planning: Ecological Rationalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Economic planning must be polycentric, not monocentric: Introduction to a symposium on Mises and Hayek on socialism and knowledge

Carden

2022

Southern Economic Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The roaring (20-) 20s are a decade of anniversaries and milestones. 2020 was the 100th anniversary of Ludwig von Mises's seminal article "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth" and the 75th anniversary of F.A. Hayek's seminal article "The Use of Knowledge in Society." 2022 brought a series of significant anniversaries: the 100th anniversary of Mises's Socialism: An Economic and Sociological Analysis as well as the 60th anniversary of James M. Buchanan and Gordon Tullock's The Calculus of Consent: Logical Foundations of Constitutional Democracy, Milton Friedman's Capitalism and Freedom, and Murray Rothbard's Man, Economy, and State. It was also the 20th anniversary of Vernon Smith's Nobel Prize. The works and milestones celebrating anniversaries in 2022 owe much to Mises's and Hayek's pathbreaking contributions. This paper summarizes and contextualizes Mises's and Hayek's arguments about socialism and knowledge and introduces a Southern Economic Journal symposium on the anniversaries of "Economic Calculation in the Socialist Commonwealth" and "The Use of Knowledge in Society."

show abstract

“…While modern economists mostly agree that the dispersed and proprietary knowledge of individuals is decisive for economic decision‐making, some suggest that “it is incorrect, or at least, outdated, to claim that designers of regulations cannot improve upon market outcomes, given current and conceivable computing methods” (Devereaux, 2019, p. 141). Following the Cybersyn experience, advances in computational and machine learning methods in big data could feasibly design an institutional constraint that overcomes the economic calculation challenge revealed by Mises and Hayek (Bowles, Kirman, & Sethi, 2017).…”

Section: Algorithmic Planning In Chilementioning

confidence: 99%

Salvador Allende's development policy: Lessons after 50 years

Espinosa

2021

Economic Affairs

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Last year, 2020, was the 50th anniversary of the opening of the ‘Chilean road to socialism’ by Salvador Allende. Although the Allende government is the political reference for the 'socialism of the 21st century’ in Latin America, international supporters tend to disregard the primary cause of its downfall, focusing instead on the circumstances of Allende's death. This article explains the link between the Allende government's development policies and its macroeconomic outcomes between 1970 and 1973. It finds that Chile's economic collapse had an endogenous cause related to government policies. This supports the views of Mises and Hayek on the feasibility of socialist economic policies. Policymakers and commentators should recognise essential lessons from the Chilean experience to learn from past errors and effectively promote Latin America's economic development.

show abstract

The nudge wars: A modern socialist calculation debate

Cited by 11 publications

References 50 publications

Principles of Nudging and Boosting: Steering or Empowering Decision-Making for Behavioral Development Economics

Principles of Nudging and Boosting: Steering or Empowering Decision-Making for Behavioral Development Economics

Economic planning must be polycentric, not monocentric: Introduction to a symposium on Mises and Hayek on socialism and knowledge

Salvador Allende's development policy: Lessons after 50 years

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About