2008/12/01 by B. Douglas Bernheim · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics #Welfare #Economics #Behavioural economics #Behavioral economics #Public economics #Psychology #Microeconomics #Market economy
paper · pdf · doi:10.3386/w14622
openalex publication_date 2008/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
This paper discusses several competing proposals for general normative frameworks that would encompass non-standard models of choice. Most existing proposals equate welfare with well-being. Some assume that well-being flows from the achievement of well-defined objectives, and that those objectives also guide choices; the trick is to formulate a framework in which less-than-completely coherent choice patterns reveal the unobserved objectives. Others are predicated on the contention that well-being, and hence welfare, is directly measurable. Both of those approaches encounter serious conceptual difficulties. An alternative approach, developed by It entails a generalized welfare criterion that respects choice directly, without requiring any rationalization involving potentially unverifiable assumptions concerning underlying objectives and their relationships to choice. Because useful behavioral theories generally envision a substantial degree of underlying coherence in behavior, that criterion leads to a rich and tractable normative framework.