Reminder Invited Lecture Constraining the behavioral Leviathan Speaker Avishalom Tor Professor of Law and Director, Notre Dame Program on Law and Economics (NDLE); Notre Dame Research Program on Law and Market Behavior March 10, 2026 17 19 hrs Veranstaltungsort/Venue Room 4.06/4.07 Webster Private University Vienna Praterstraße 23 A 1020 Vienna Public Transport U1, U4, Tram 1 and 2 Schwedenplatz, 10 Minutes Walk Tram 1 and 2, Julius Raab Platz, 5 Minutes Walk Your registration in advance is highly apprechiated ! Please mail to sonnenfelscenter@webster.ac.at We are looking forward to welcome you at our new base! Wolfgang Weigel m.p. (Chair) abstract Governments increasingly turn to behavioral interventions (or nudges) to advance their policy goals. Such policies have already been employed in many major domain, from health, safety, education, and finance, through environmental protection and tax compliance, to public service delivery and more. Yet, while governments recognize the need to discipline traditional regulation through institutional or economic assessment mechanismssuch as cost-benefit analysis (CBA)the same cannot be said of their approach to nudges. Instead, there is a widespread view that such soft interventions are largely harmless and entail only low costs, needing no scrutiny before they are adopted. This pervasive complacency is misplaced, however, as nudges often produce substantial costs that can exceed their benefits, undermine rational choice, and more. Behavioral interventions must be scrutinized no less carefully than their traditional counterparts, whether through CBA or by developing novel assessment methods suited to disciplining the rapidly growing behavioral Leviathan. Wolfgang Weigel Associate Professor (retired) Department of Economics University of Vienna and Joseph von Sonnenfels Center for the Study of Public Law and Economics (Chair) Oskar Morgenstern Square 1 Room 05.502 1090 Vienna Austria
