HPS³ - Andrea Isoni - The Demand and Supply of PaternalismWe welcome Andrea Isoni on Wednesday, 29 May 2024 to the HPS Seminar Series

29 May 2024, 5:15 pm

The Hamburg Political Science Seminar Series (HPS³) features international speakers presenting cutting-edge research in empirical political science and political economy.

We welcome on Wednesday, 29 May 2024 17:15-18:45 CET in VMP9 A 411

Andrea Isoni (The University of Warwick)

Title: The Demand and Supply of Paternalism ​
(with Axel Ockenfels, Robert Sugden, Jiwei Zheng)​
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Abstract:​ The evidence that individuals may recognise that their hot desires are often inconsistent with their cool judgments has led to calls for paternalistic interventions to support better decisions. Using an experimental paradigm that involves trade-offs between smaller-sooner and larger-later future rewards, we investigate whether individuals express a desire for self-constraint that represses hot desires in favour of cool judgments (demand for inner paternalism), whether they would like such constraints to be imposed externally (demand for outer paternalism), and whether they would be willing to constrain others (supply of paternalism). We find extensive evidence of self-imposed constraints and a high willingness to constrain others, but very little desire for external constraints. While preference reversals favouring impatient choices prevail over the opposite reversals, patient and impatient constraints are equally likely. This pattern of out-of-equilibrium supply and demand is inconsistent with behavioural economics notions of paternalism, but consistent with a simple notion of misprediction of future preferences. ​
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Keywords: demand for paternalism, supply of paternalism, time-inconsistent preferences, self-control, projection bias.​

The HPS³ seminars take place  in person at the UHH. Please find the preliminary program on the HPS³ Website.

We invite everyone interested to attend the HPS Seminar Series and are looking forward to seeing you.