Not posting this because I agree with it but rather because I think it’s one of the more influential econ papers actually dealing with the reality of addiction: Bernheim and Rangel 2004 those suffering from addiction have no control and are poorer (even then people of the same ex ante income), and for those not suffering from addiction it’s not obvious why they are irrational.
I think the conclusion is almost certainly wrong, but why it’s wrong is a bit subtle and hard to pin down, so I thought it might be a helpful thing to be aware of going into this. It’s published in the AER so it’s sort of an influential enhancement of Larks’s comment.
(Also full disclosure that Bernheim is my advisor. That mostly just makes me more perplexed by this paper.)
Not posting this because I agree with it but rather because I think it’s one of the more influential econ papers actually dealing with the reality of addiction: Bernheim and Rangel 2004 those suffering from addiction have no control and are poorer (even then people of the same ex ante income), and for those not suffering from addiction it’s not obvious why they are irrational.
I think the conclusion is almost certainly wrong, but why it’s wrong is a bit subtle and hard to pin down, so I thought it might be a helpful thing to be aware of going into this. It’s published in the AER so it’s sort of an influential enhancement of Larks’s comment.
(Also full disclosure that Bernheim is my advisor. That mostly just makes me more perplexed by this paper.)
Thanks Zach – I think your link is broken
You can access here:
https://www.rnl.caltech.edu/publications/pdf/aer04addiction.pdf