What's in a Nudge?

18 Pages Posted: 24 Feb 2017

See all articles by Brian D. Galle

Brian D. Galle

Georgetown University Law Center

Date Written: February 23, 2017

Abstract

This Essay is an invited response to Prof. Sunstein’s “Do People Like Nudges?,” a thoughtful survey of public opinion on nudges and their rival policy options. I try to situate the survey in the larger context of Sunstein’s pathbreaking work, and then to reflect on the power and limits of both. I suggest that researchers have come to use the term “nudge” as a shorthand for a wide set of policies, many of which do not meet Thaler & Sunstein’s criterion that nudges be both essentially costless as well as “surprising” from a rational-choice perspective. This definitional confusion produces analytic confusion, as well.

My view, however, is that other researchers are right not to limit themselves to the scope of what Thaler & Sunstein have been inclined to defend. The zero-cost restriction is unnecessary to a convincing defense of regulation, even “paternalistic” regulation. Further, describing some policies as zero cost tends to lead us to neglect opportunity costs or interactions with other policies, as I show with the example of disclosure rules. I therefore close by proposing a more careful analytic taxonomy of modern regulation.

Suggested Citation

Galle, Brian D., What's in a Nudge? (February 23, 2017). Administrative Law Review, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2922712

Brian D. Galle (Contact Author)

Georgetown University Law Center ( email )

600 New Jersey Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20001
United States

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