Working Paper: NBER ID: w18787
Authors: Daniel J. Benjamin; Ori Heffetz; Miles S. Kimball; Nichole Szembrot
Abstract: We propose a social choice rule for aggregating preferences elicited from surveys into a marginal adjustment of policy from the status quo. The mechanism is: (i) symmetric in its treatment of survey respondents; (ii) ordinal, using only the orientation of respondents' indifference surfaces; (iii) local, using only preferences in the neighborhood of current policy; and (iv) what we call "first-order strategy-proof," making the gains from misreporting preferences second order. The mechanism could be applied to guide policy based on how policy affects responses to subjective well-being surveys.
Keywords: social choice; policy adjustment; subjective wellbeing; survey preferences
JEL Codes: D69; H0; I38
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| survey responses regarding subjective wellbeing (I31) | marginal policy adjustment (D78) |
| local ordinal preferences (C69) | policy outcomes (D78) |
| truthful reporting of preferences (D91) | policy change (D78) |