Self-control failures, as judged by themselves

• DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-03845-1
• Publication Date: 2024-10-08T12:02:16Z
• Authors: Leonhard K. Lades; Liam Delaney
• Keywords: H; 330; AZ20-999; Social Sciences; History of scholarship and learning. The humanities

AbstractThe existence of self-control failures is often used to legitimize public policy interventions. The argument is that reducing self-control failures can make people better off, as judged by themselves. However, there is only scarce evidence on the frequency and welfare costs of self-control failures. This paper presents a survey method that allows us to measure self-control failures in everyday life and to identify their welfare costs in terms of associations with experienced subjective well-being. We present novel survey evidence using this method and discuss its implications for behavioural welfare economics and behavioural public policy.