Consumer Law and Economics

Consumer Law and Economics

Description

Editors: Klaus Mathis & Avishalom Tor

From the Publisher

This edited volume covers the challenges currently faced by consumer law in Europe and the United States, ranging from fundamental theoretical questions, such as what goals consumer law should pursue, to practical questions raised by disclosure requirements, the General Data Protection Regulation and technology advancements. With governments around the world enacting powerful new regulations concerning consumers, consumer law has become an important topic in the economic analysis of law. Intended to protect consumers, these regulations typically seek to do so by giving them tools to make better decisions, or by limiting the consequences of their bad decisions. Legal scholars are divided, however, regarding the efficacy and effects of these regulations; some call for certain policies to be abolished, while others support a regulatory expansion.

Nudges are increasingly popular, in large part due to the typically low costs required to implement them. Yet most often the main cost of nudging is due not to their implementation, but rather to the opportunity costs of its successful change of the behavior of its targets. Accounting for these target opportunity costs is essential for the appropriate assessment of the welfare effect of nudges. Nonetheless, the extant literature on behavioral policies largely ignores these costs or underestimates their magnitude and, consequently, overestimate the net benefits of nudges. At times, nudges remain the most attractive policy alternative even after their opportunity costs are accounted for. On other occasions, however, traditional instruments or a no-intervention approach turn out to make more efficient policy alternatives.

ISBN

9783030490270

Publication Date

2021

Publisher

Springer

Keywords

Consumer Law and Economics, General Data Protection Regulation, Economic Analysis of Law

Disciplines

Consumer Protection Law | Law | Law and Economics

Comments

Series: Economic Analysis of Law in European Legal Scholarship, vol. 9

Avishalom Tor, The Target Opportunity Costs of Successful Nudges, in Consumer law and Economics 3 (Klaus Mathis & Avishalom Tor eds., 2021).

Consumer Law and Economics


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