Nudges that should fail?

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 316-342 ◽  
Author(s):  
AVISHALOM TOR

AbstractProfessor Sunstein (2017) discusses the possible causes for and policy implications of the failure of nudges, with special attention to defaults. Though he focuses on nudges that fail when they should succeed, Sunstein recognizes that some failures reveal that a nudge should not have been attempted to begin with. ‘Nudges that fail’, however, does not consider fully the relationship between the outcomes of nudging and their likely welfare effects, most notably neglecting the troubling case of nudges that succeed when they should fail. Hence, after clarifying the boundaries of legitimate nudging within a libertarian-paternalistic approach and noting the fourfold relationship between the efficacy of nudging and its normative desirability, this article evaluates more fully the case of failed nudges and examines the hitherto unaddressed problem of successful yet undesirable nudges. This analysis shows that the failure of nudging bears only limited diagnostic value, while the success of a nudge is even less indicative of its normative status. The article concludes with recommendations for policy-makers who wish to employ nudges that are not only efficacious, but also likely to advance the subjective well-being of the individuals they target.

Author(s):  
Killian Mullan

We routinely judge how well children are doing in their lives by how they spend their time, yet we know remarkably little about it. This rigorous review of four decades of data provides the clearest insights yet into the way children use their time. With analysis of changes in the time spent on family, education, culture and technology, as well as children's own views on their habits, it provides a fascinating perspective on behaviour, well-being, social change and more. This is an indispensable companion to the work of policy makers, academics and researchers, and anyone interested in the daily lives of children. The book begins by tracing some of the major strands of social change thought to have had an impact on different areas of children's daily time use. The past several decades have witnessed rapid social, economic, and technological change, widely thought to have affected many aspects of children's daily lives. It then examines the relationship between children's time use and outcomes relating to their health, development, and well-being, drawing together strands of thought from the sociology of childhood and research on child well-being. The book discusses overall trends in children's time doing homework and study. It examines associations between children's time use and a range of different health outcomes, and moves on to investigate the context of children's daily life linked to family, in particular concentrating on the time children spend at home and with parents. It evaluates children's time using technology, and focuses on the affective component of subjective well-being, specifically in connection with how children feel about how they spend their time. In conclusion, the book identifies areas of expected change as well as other areas of surprising stability. It reveals how change and stability in children's time use blend together to comprise a child's day, uncovering also the multi-layered contexts of a child's day.


2016 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ms. Anjali Sahai ◽  
Prof. (Dr). Abha Singh

Organizational Justice has the potential to create major impact on organizations and employees alike. These include greater commitment, trust, enhanced job performance, more citizenship behaviors and less number of conflicts. It has been reported that employees seem to have a universal concern for Justice that transcends the self and that many are subject to biases at various point of time in their work life. Sometimes these biases lead to adverse outcomes including decreased level of subjective well-being. Subjective well-being is a broad category that includes life satisfaction, positive affect, and low negative affect, such as anger, sadness and fear. Thus to study the relationship between Organizational justice and subjective well-being, a sample of 88 employees working in Private Universities of NCR region were examined. For this purpose, the Organizational Justice scales consisting of Measure of Procedural & Interactional Justice and Distributive Justice Index scale by Moorman, Blakely & Niehoff (1998) and Subjective Wellbeing Scales inclusive of the Satisfaction with Life Scale(SWLS),Scale of Positive and Negative Experience(SPANE) and Flourishing Scale (FS) by Ed Diener (2004)were used. Results indicate significant relationship between the three types of Organizational justice and subjective well-being of employees.


Author(s):  
Rostiana Rostiana ◽  
Daniel Lie

Objective - Individual work performance (IWP) has been researched time and time again in the past few decades. Interestingly enough, existing research on IWP focuses mainly on the area of work production and lacks an in-depth holistic understanding of IWP and other interrelated work behaviours. In this study, IWP is explored in the context of a multidimensional construct that includes the dimensions of task, contextual, and counterproductive behaviours. The purpose of this research is to investigate whether the three variables of work engagement (WE), psychological empowerment (PE), and subjective well-being (SWB) mediate and correlate with the relationship between perceived organisational support (POS) and IWP. Methodology/Technique - 780 employees from 4 organisations in Jakarta were selected to participate in this study. The respondents were tasked with responding to five questionnaires including (1) IWP of Koopmans, (2) POS of Eisenberger, (3) SWB of Diener, (4) WE of Baker and Schaufeli, (5) PE of Spreitzer. The data was analysed using structural equation modelling. Findings - The results show that the proposed structural model aligns with the empirical data [X2 (0, N = 780) = 0, p = 1.000; RMSEA=.000]. This research concludes that the relationship between POS and IWP is best mediated by either WE, PE or SWB. Among the three mediators, WE plays the greatest role in mediating the relationship between POS and IWP. Novelty - These findings expand on previous research on the weak relationship between POS and IWP. Type of Paper - Empirical. Keywords: Individual Work Performance; Perceived Organizational Support; Psychological Empowerment; Subjective Well-being; Work Engagement. JEL Classification: L20, L25, L29.


Author(s):  
Emmanuel Abokyi ◽  
Dirk Strijker ◽  
Kofi Fred Asiedu ◽  
Michiel N. Daams

AbstractThis study investigates the possible causal relationship between buffer stock operations in Ghanaian agriculture and the well-being of smallholder farmers in a developing world setting. We analyze the differences in the objective and subjective well-being of smallholder farmers who do or do not participate in a buffer stock price stabilization policy initiative, using self-reported assessments of 507 farmers. We adopt a two-stage least square instrumental variable estimation to account for possible endogeneity. Our results provide evidence that participation in buffer stock operations improves the objective and subjective well-being of smallholder farmers by 20% and 15%, respectively. Also, with estimated coefficient of 1.033, we find a significant and robust relationship between objective well-being and subjective well-being among smallholder farmers. This relationship implies that improving objective well-being enhances the subjective well-being of the farmers. We also find that the activities of intermediaries decrease both the objective and subjective well-being of farmers. This study demonstrates that economic, social, and environmental aspects of agricultural life could constitute priorities for public policy in improving well-being, given their strong correlation with the well-being of farmers. Based on the results of this study, we provide a better understanding, which may aid policy-makers, that public buffer stockholding operations policy is a viable tool for improving the well-being of smallholder farmers in a developing country.


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