Abstract

BENBENASTE, Narciso  and  BERSHADSKY, Romina. Behavioral economics: consumerism, state paternalism And potato chips "going rational". Anu. investig. [online]. 2007, vol.14, pp.113-121. ISSN 1851-1686.

Behavioral economics has now become a major new field in economic. Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky backed up by a large amount of experiments; show that rationality in standard economy is not always accomplished by the decision maker. Due to these experiments the discussion is the following: if the individual can harm himself by making his own decision, then should the State make the decision on what is best for the individual? This subject matter leads to the controversy on paternalism: Does it diminish freedom as a value and so the development of the responsible citizen? In this paper we will set some examples of the discussion currently held in the academic world. Last we will show how the historic market dynamic can modify the irrational behavior. We will also set some precision on when not only the state intervention doesn't diminish freedom but also can enforce the experience of consumption of the responsible citizen.

Keywords : Freedom; Rationality; Consumerism; State.

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