Behavioral economics and libertarian paternalism: individual behavior at the center of public policy

Abstract

Within the framework of the research work on the functions and collateral effects of the introduction of information systems for social protection, the question arises about the theme developed in these pages. From this study it appears that these developments not only involved technological alterations in the scaffolding of social protection, but also contributed to the deployment of specific public policy approaches such as risk management and preventive safety or behavioral economics. This article addresses the behavioral economics approach and its libertarian paternalism with the aim of identifying its contribution to the development of public policies based on “evidence”. The main postulates of this approach are analyzed, its growing expansion in various academic and political spheres, its institutionalization through the creation of public policy laboratories in government agencies and / or university centers, the critical aspects of this approach considering its principles and assumptions of interpretation, the methodological aspects of their experiments and inferences, the ethical-political considerations of these trials and the controversies about their limitations and effects in the medium and long term. I conclude by identifying factors and practical reasons that would be contributing to the global expansion of a very limited approach that places individual behaviors at the heart of public policy.