It is not fruitful to puzzle over the question whether economists and others ‘favor’ or ‘lean’ toward the regulatory or welfare state; that is an unhelpful and confusing question, one that orients people in the wrong way. It is better to begin by emphasizing that the first should be...

LIBERTARIAN PATERNALISTS INSIST ON FREEDOM OF CHOICE; they do not want to foreclose options (Sunstein and Thaler 2003). At the same time, they believe that, in many contexts, planners cannot help influencing choosers, even if they aspire to neutrality. If influences are inevitable, shouldn't...