Panel 4: Regulatory Democracy, Embedded Individualism
Photos and a video of the discussion.
Articles for category: Focus
Panel 3: Choice and Regulation in Financial Markets
Photos and a video of the discussion.
Panel 2: Choice as Experience – Case Studies
Photos and a video of the discussion.
Panel 1: Risk, Choice and Autonomy – Behavioral Economics and Choice Architectures
Photos and a video of the discussion.
Key Note Lecture: The Ethics of Choice Architecture
Cass Sunstein's key note lecture in the BBAW Leibniz Hall, Berlin 2015 Jan 12th.
Nudge and the European Union
Europe has largely been absent from the US-dominated debate surrounding the introduction of nudge-type interventions in policy-making. As the EU and its Member States are exploring the possibility of embracing nudging, it appears desirable to reframe such a debate so as to adapt it to the legal and political realities of the European Union.
Nudging and Uncertainty (Abstract)
In three respects, behaviorally informed governance faces much deeper uncertainty than traditional intervention. The first source of uncertainty is theoretical. Many empirically well-established behavioral effects are still not well understood. The second source of uncertainty is empirical. Despite the richness of many experimental literatures, many effects are still disputed. It is always up to debate whether lab evidence extrapolates to the phenomena in the field one wants to understand. The third source of uncertainty is heterogeneity. Hardly any behavioral effect is uniform. The substantial additional uncertainty poses a practical problem. Behaviorally informed intervention may be pointless since analysis or prediction ... continue reading
Bounded Rationality and the Concept of Materiality in Securities Regulation – How rational is the »reasonable investor«? (Abstract)
The concept of materiality – in the EU known as (price) relevance – is key to both the insider trading ban and the continuous disclosure obligation under EU and US securities regulation. The insider trading bans prohibit market participants from trading on non-public, material information. The EU continuous disclosure obligation requires issuers of financial instruments to publish any material information that is not publicly known and directly concerns those issuers. Both EU and US securities regimes measure materiality from the perspective of a »reasonable investor«. However, courts have reached differing conclusions on how rational reasonable investors really are. In the ... continue reading
Getting nudges right – interests, norms and the legitimacy of choice architecture
While the general approach of choice architecture of altering the decision contexts of individuals without limiting freedom of choice should provide several innovative and efficient regulatory tools, the criticism by various scholars usually focuses on the following: Critics claim that the influence of the regulatory state in dictating socially desirable goals to be achieved through nudges by steering consumers towards these goals will go well beyond any libertarian idea regarding the role of state and its supposed impact on citizens‹ autonomy. When theorizing about the question of legitimacy of nudging policies, reflecting the normative foundations of choice architecture will foster ... continue reading
Nudging as a Matter of Politics
Nudging is about effective solutions for social problems and a parallel case to other regulatory approaches. It fits into the tradition of rational policy-making. It requires a political decision on whether or not nudging should be chosen as an instrument to remedy the social costs entailed with risky behavior. And from a legal point of view it has to be reviewed whether the measure chosen is not a disproportionate loss of freedom for the individual. This requires balancing the interests. As nudging is a matter of politics we have to discuss it in the political arena.
