Richard Thaler on Libertarian Paternalism

EconTalk

Library of Economics and Liberty

Ethics, Philosophy, Economics, Books, Science, Business, Courses, Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Interviews, Education, History

4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 6 November 2006

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Richard Thaler of the U. of Chicago Graduate School of Business defends the idea of libertarian paternalism--how government might use the insights of behavioral economics to help citizens make better choices. Host Russ Roberts accepts the premise that individuals make imperfect choices but challenges Thaler on the likelihood that government, in practice, will improve matters. Along the way they discuss the design of Sweden's social security system, organ donations and whether professors at Cornell University are more or less like you and me.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, brought to you by the Library of Economics and Liberty,
0:03.6	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of George Mason University, and Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:09.3	My guest today is Richard Thaler, the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor
0:14.0	of Behavioral Science and Economics at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business.
0:19.3	He has made extensive contributions to our understanding of behavior challenging the
0:23.2	traditional model of rational choice. He's one of the true pioneers in the area known as Behavioral
0:28.0	Economics. And in 2003, with his colleague, Cass Sunstein, he wrote provocative articles for the
0:34.2	University of Chicago Law Review and the American Economics Review, defending what the authors
0:38.8	called Libertarian paternalism. And in a recent episode of Econ Talk, Edward Glazer was critical
0:44.4	of Thaler and Sunstein's ideas. So I thought we'd give Richard Thaler a chance to defend himself.
0:49.5	Richard, welcome to Econ Talk. Thank you. Thanks for having me.
0:53.3	This idea of Libertarian paternalism, one of your papers, your title claims it's not an oxymoron.
1:01.4	Why don't you tell us what that is? What is Libertarian paternalism?
1:05.6	Well, maybe let's begin by defining some terms. So by paternalism, all we mean is attempting to make
1:15.2	people better off as judged by themselves. So if I do something for you and my goal is to make
1:25.2	you happy by your own lights, then I'm calling that paternalism. Libertarian, I'm sure your listeners
1:38.0	are familiar with the term. For this, we just mean a policy that does not restrict anyone's freedom
1:44.7	to choose. Non-coercive. Non-coercive, correct. And we believe that both terms are particularly unpopular
1:59.5	these days. It's hard to find anyone who outside of an economic department that's willing to
2:06.5	call themselves Libertarian. And there is no greater crime than calling yourself a paternalist.
2:13.1	But at least using the definitions I've suggested, we think both are attractive and both are possible.
2:22.2	And why would it be justified? Why would it be justified to act in a non-coercive way
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Library of Economics and Liberty, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Library of Economics and Liberty and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.