http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/01/07/on-certification-instead-of-regulation/ Politics and Culture from a Catholic perspective. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:29:18 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://the-american-catholic.com/2010/01/07/on-certification-instead-of-regulation/#comment-13652 Blackadder Fri, 08 Jan 2010 16:14:05 +0000 http://the-american-catholic.com/?p=16344#comment-13652 The Thaler and Sunstein book <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nudge-Improving-Decisions-Health-Happiness/dp/014311526X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1262967021&sr=8-1" rel="nofollow">Nudge</a> made some similar recommendations regarding what you might call "plain vanilla" options for things like credit cards, mortgages, etc. In general they think that you could get around the problems noted by Ms. McArdle by making the plain vanilla the "default option" rather than just one option among many. The idea is that most people tend to stick with a default option whatever it is, and the few who don't tend to be the ones who are more knowledgeable and capable of comparing the pros and cons of other options. I'm not sure how that would translate into things like health care, but it's an interesting idea. The Thaler and Sunstein book Nudge made some similar recommendations regarding what you might call “plain vanilla” options for things like credit cards, mortgages, etc. In general they think that you could get around the problems noted by Ms. McArdle by making the plain vanilla the “default option” rather than just one option among many. The idea is that most people tend to stick with a default option whatever it is, and the few who don’t tend to be the ones who are more knowledgeable and capable of comparing the pros and cons of other options. I’m not sure how that would translate into things like health care, but it’s an interesting idea.

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