Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/88255 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
Papers on Economics and Evolution No. 1208
Publisher: 
Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena
Abstract: 
Robert Sugden has recently elaborated upon the case for a normative standard of freedom as opportunity that is supposed to cope with the problem of how to realign normative economics - with its traditional rational choice orientation - with behavioral economics. His standard, though, presupposes that people respond to uncertainty about their own future preferences by dismissing any kind of self-commitment. We argue that the approach lacks psychological substance: Sugden's normative benchmark - the responsible person - is a purely artificial construct that can hardly serve as a convincing role model in a contractarian setting. An alternative concept is introduced, and some policy implications are briefly discussed.
Subjects: 
Opportunity Criterion
Preference Change
Reconciliation Problem
JEL: 
D51
D63
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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