The Political Economy of Social Desirability Bias

Last week, I visited the University of Freiburg for a conference on behavioral political economy.  My presentation: “The Political Economy of Social Desirability Bias: The Case of Education.”  The first half, which summarizes The Case Against Education, will already be familiar to most EconLog readers.  The second half, however, should seem new.  I blend psychology and public choice to explain why education is almost universally politically popular despite the bountiful evidence in favor of the signaling model.  Simple version: For all its faults, education simply sounds good.

My slides are here.  Enjoy!

P.S. Alex Tabarrok presented a stand-out talk on what’s wrong with India.  If anyone is going to fix India, it will be him…

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