Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Date
2012
Abstract
Policy makers typically approach human behavior from the perspective of the rational agent model, which relics on normativc, a priori analyses. The model assumes people make insightful, well-planned, highly controlled, and calculated decisions guided by considerations of personal utility. This perspective is promoted in the social sciences and in professional schools and has come to dominate much of the formulation and conduct of policy. An alternative view, developed mostly through empirical behavioral research, and the one we will articulate here, provides a substantially difierent perspective on individual behavior and its policy and regulatory implications. According to the empirical perspective, behavior is the amalgam of perceptions, impulses, judgments, and decision processes that emerge from the impressive machinery that people carry behind the eyes and between the ears. Actual human behavior, it is argued, is often unforeseen and misunderstood by classical policy thinking. A more nuanced behavioral perspective, it is suggested, can yield deeper understanding and improved regulatory insight.
Publication Information & Recommended Citation
Barr, Michael S. "Behaviorally Informed Regulation." S. Mullainathan and E. Shafir, co-authors. In Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy, edited by E. Shafir, 440-64. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2012.
Included in
Banking and Finance Law Commons, Consumer Protection Law Commons, Law and Psychology Commons, Law and Society Commons