Document Type
Article
Publication Title
Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
Publication Date
2015
ISSN
0193-4872
Page Number
973
Keywords
behavior modification, public choice, government policy
Disciplines
Law | Public Law and Legal Theory
Abstract
Although government agencies increasingly use behavioral irrationalities as a justification for government intervention, the paradox is that these same government policies are also subject to similar behavioral inadequacies across a broad range of policies. This article develops an analysis of behavioral public choice in which we recognize that government officials are human and subject to behavioral anomalies and to public choice incentives that could further lead to welfare-reducing policies. Moreover, the existence of behavioral failures by the general public will lead to public pressures on government agencies to foster policies in response to these behavioral inadequacies. This article presents a series of policy examples indicating how government policies as well are subject to behavioral and political biases.
Recommended Citation
W. Kip Viscusi,
Behavioral Public Choice: The Behavioral Paradox of Government Policy, 38 Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy. 973
(2015)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/faculty-publications/59