I’m delighted to report that Cass Sunstein will be guest-blogging this week about his new book, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness (that’s pronounced “nuhdge,” not “noodge“). The book, which is cowritten with Prof. Richard H. Thaler, argues for a sort of choice-enhancing paternalism — a framework in which the government can create “choice architecture” that would push people into better decisions (i.e., ones that the actors on reflection would ultimately agree are better for them) by taking into account natural cognitive biases to which people are subject, without restricting freedom of choice.
Sunstein is now Karl N. Llewellyn Distinguished Service Professor at the University of Chicago Law School, but he will be joining the faculty of Harvard Law School next year. He is the author of many books, including Republic.com 2.0, Worst-Case Scenarios, Infotopia, and Laws of Fear. He is also, by a large margin, the most-cited full-time law professor, judging by citations in law reviews. I’m sure that many of our readers will disagree with Sunstein’s posts, but I’m also sure that they’ll be interesting and provocative.