One Problem With Behavioral Economics

See Is 'Nudging' Really Enough? With things like burgers and electricity, we often need a shove, by Johan Lehrer, WSJ, 4-16-17. Excerpts:

"And yet the initial results of many of these policies have been humbling. Consider the new regulations in New York City requiring restaurants to list the calorie content of all menu items. (Similar regulations were part of the 2010 federal health-care reform legislation.) Although proponents of the law hoped that the extra information would lead consumers to shy away from Caramel Macchiatos and McGriddle sandwiches—officials estimated that, over a five-year period, the law would keep 150,000 New Yorkers from becoming obese—that hasn't happened. Instead, initial analyses by researchers at New York University and Yale have found that, since the law was enacted, the average restaurant-goer has actually been purchasing slightly more calories."

"The second problem is that such nudges are ill-equipped to solve thorny societal problems. Take energy consumption. As the behavioral economists George Loewenstein and Peter Ubel have pointed out, the most effective way to reduce energy consumption is to increase its cost through higher taxes on carbon."