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Indiana University Bloomington

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Explore Business Horizons, the Kelley School's
bimonthly journal publishing original articles of interest to business academicians and practitioners. Marc J. Dollinger, professor of business administration, serves as editor-in-chief.

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Journal Articles

Internalities and Paternalism: Applying the Compensation Criterion to Multiple Selves across Time

2012, Social Choice and Welfare

Eric Bennett Rasmusen

Abstract

One reason to call an activity a vice and suppress it is that it reduces a person's future happiness more than it increases his present happiness. Gruber & Koszegi (2001) show how a vice tax can increase a person's welfare in a model of multiple selves with hyperbolic preferences across time. An interself analogy of the compensation criterion can justify a vice ban whether preferences are hyperbolic or exponential, but subject to the caveat that the person has a binding constraint on borrowing.

Citation

Rasmusen, Eric Bennett (2012), "Internalities and Paternalism: Applying the Compensation Criterion to Multiple Selves across Time," Social Choice and Welfare, Vol. 38, No. 4, April, pp. 601-615.