7,044 research outputs found
Toward Choice-Theoretic Foundations for Behavioral Welfare Economics
Interest in behavioral economics has grown in recent years, stimulated largely by accumulating evidence that the standard model of consumer decision making provides an inadequate, positive description of human behavior. Behavioral models are increasingly finding their way into policy evaluation, which inevitably involves welfare analysis. No consensus concerning the appropriate standards and criteria for behavioral welfare analysis has emerged yet.
This paper summarizes our effort to develop a unified framework for behavioral welfare economics (for a detailed discussion see Bernheim and Rangel 2007) — one that can be viewed as a natural extension of standard welfare economics. Standard welfare analysis is based on choice, not on utility or preferences. In its simplest form, it instructs the planner to respect the choices an individual would make for himself. The guiding normative principle is an extension of the libertarian deference to freedom of choice, which takes the view that it is better to give a person the thing he would choose for himself rather than something that someone else would choose for him.
We show that it is possible to extend the standard choice-theoretic approach to welfare analysis to situations where individuals make inconsistent choices, which are prevalent in behavioral economics
Beyond revealed preference: choice-theoretic foundations for behavioral welfare economics
We propose a broad generalization of standard choice-theoretic welfare economics that encompasses a wide variety of nonstandard behavioral models. Our approach exploits the coherent aspects of choice that those positive models typically attempt to capture. It replaces the standard revealed preference relation with an unambiguous choice relation: roughly, x is (strictly) unambiguously chosen over y (written xP*y) iff y is never chosen when x is available. Under weak assumptions, P* is acyclic and therefore suitable for welfare analysis; it is also the most discerning welfare criterion that never overrules choice. The resulting framework generates natural counterparts for the standard tools of applied welfare economics and is easily applied in the context of specific behavioral theories, with novel implications. Though not universally discerning, it lends itself to principled refinements
Behavioral Public Economics: Welfare and Policy Analysis with Non-Standard Decision-Makers
This paper has two goals. First, we discuss several emerging approaches to applied welfare analysis under non-standard ("behavioral") assumptions concerning consumer choice. This provides a foundation for Behavioral Public Economics. Second, we illustrate applications of these approaches by surveying behavioral studies of policy problems involving saving, addiction, and public goods. We argue that the literature on behavioral public economics, though in its infancy, has already fundamentally changed our understanding of public policy in each of these domains.
Addiction and Cue-Conditioned Cognitive Processes
We propose an economic theory of addiction based on the premise that cognitive mechanisms such as attention affect behavior independently of preferences. We argue that the theory is consistent with foundational evidence (e.g. from neurosciencee and psychology) concerning the nature of decision-making and addiction. The model is analytically tractable, and it accounts for a broad range of stylized facts concerning addiction. It also generates a plausible qualitative mapping from the characteristics of substances into consumption patterns, thereby providing a basis for empirical tests. Finally, the theory provides a clear standard for evaluating social welfare, and it has a number of striking policy implications.
Democratic Policy Making with Real-Time Agenda Setting: Part 1
We examine democratic policy-making in a simple institution with real-time agenda setting. Individuals are recognized sequentially. Once recognized, an individual makes a proposal, which is immediately put to a vote. If a proposal passes, it supercedes all previously passed proposals. The policy that emerges from this process is implemented. For some familiar classes of policy spaces with rich distributional politics, we show that the last proposer is effectively a dictator under a variety of natural conditions. Most notably, this occurs whenever a sufficient number of individuals have opportunities to make proposals. Thus, under reasonably general assumptions, control of the final proposal with real-time agenda setting confers as much power as control of the entire agenda.
Mental Health Advocacy for Kids: A Social Media Campaign
Abstract
Mental health in children has important, life-long effects on the child (Ghandour et al., 2018; Underwood & Washington, 2016). Because it is not always easy for parents to access important mental health resources and information (CDC, 2022b), I wanted to investigate whether social media is a viable way for parents to learn more about their child’s mental health. I created and distributed ads aimed at parents on three common mental illnesses diagnosed in children: anxiety, depression, and ADHD. My ads had high levels of engagement, thus allowing the possibility that social media could be important avenue for reaching parents
Effects of quantum confinement on excited state properties of SrTiO from ab initio many-body perturbation theory
The Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) homologous series SrTiO
provides a useful template for the study and control of the effects of
dimensionality and quantum confinement on the excited state properties of the
complex oxide SrTiO. We use ab initio many-body perturbation theory within
the approximation and the Bethe-Salpeter equation approach to calculate
quasiparticle energies and absorption spectrum of SrTiO
for and . Our computed direct and indirect optical gaps are in
excellent agreement with spectroscopic measurements. The calculated optical
spectra reproduce the main experimental features and reveal excitonic structure
near the gap edge. We find that electron-hole interactions are important across
the series, leading to significant exciton binding energies that increase for
small and reach a value of 330~meV for , a trend attributed to
increased quantum confinement. We find that the lowest-energy singlet exciton
of SrTiO () localizes in the 2D plane defined by the TiO
layer, and explain the origin of its localization
Assessment of two hybrid van der Waals density functionals for covalent and non-covalent binding of molecules
Two hybrid van der Waals density functionals (vdW-DFs) are constructed using
25%, Fock exchange with i) the consistent-exchange vdW-DF-cx functional and ii)
with the vdW-DF2 functional. The ability to describe covalent and non-covalent
binding properties of molecules are assessed. For properties related to
covalent binding, atomization energies (G2-1 set), molecular reaction energies
(G2RC set), as well as ionization energies (G21IP set) are benchmarked against
experimental reference values. We find that hybrid-vdW-DF-cx yields results
that are rather similar to those of the standard non-empirical hybrid PBE0 [JCP
110, 6158 (1996)]. Hybrid vdW-DF2 follows somewhat different trends, showing on
average significantly larger deviations from the reference energies, with a MAD
of 14.5 kcal/mol for the G2-1 set. Non-covalent binding properties of molecules
are assessed using the S22 benchmark set of non-covalently bonded dimers and
the X40 set of dimers of small halogenated molecules, using wavefunction-based
quantum chemistry results for references. For the S22 set, hybrid-vdW-DF-cx
performs better than standard vdW-DF-cx for the mostly hydrogen-bonded systems.
Hybrid-vdW-DF2 offers a slight improvement over standard vdW-DF2. Similar
trends are found for the X40 set, with hybrid-vdW-DF-cx performing particularly
well for binding involving the strongly polar hydrogen halides, but poorly for
systems with tiny binding energies. Our study of the X40 set reveals both the
potential of mixing Fock exchange with vdW-DF, but also highlights shortcomings
of the hybrids constructed here. The solid performance of hybrid-vdW-DF-cx for
covalent-bonded systems, as well as the strengths and issues uncovered for
non-covalently bonded systems, makes this study a good starting point for
developing even more precise hybrid vdW-DFs
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