Evolutionary economics and the case for a constitutional libertarian paternalism-a comment on Martin Binder, 'should evolutionary economists embrace libertarian paternalism?'

摘要

In his article "Should evolutionary economists embrace libertarian paternalism?"(Journal of Evolutionary Economics 24(3), 2014, 515-539) Martin Binder discusses the pros and cons of "libertarian paternalism" (LP) from an explicitly evolutionary viewpoint, concluding that as a general rule, evolutionary economists should be cautious regarding this new and highly influential policy approach. In this comment I argue that Binder starts from an incomplete model of the institutional status quo and neglects an obvious alternative to the standard variant of LP, namely, a constitutionally constrained LP. Most of Binder's objections do not apply with equal force to such a refined variant of LP.