Implications of other-regarding preferences for policy choice

Determine the implications for public policy choice of empirically observed other-regarding preferences in the population, including how such preferences should inform welfare-economic evaluation and the selection of policies.

Background

The paper argues that real-world personal preferences may be heterogeneous and include social and deontological components (e.g., altruism, inequality concerns, fairness norms), not just self-centered consequentialist preferences. Experimental economics documents such other-regarding preferences.

However, despite this evidence, the author emphasizes that it remains unclear how these documented preferences should translate into concrete policy guidance within welfare economics, indicating a gap between empirical findings and normative policy design.