Endogenous preferences, environmental economics, and welfare

This article targets the problems of endogenous preferences for welfare assessment in the context of large-scale interventions that, for instance, concern us in environmental economics. Prominent economists have argued that the problem of endogenous preferences is particularly pressing in these cases. However, I argue that while there are promising solutions to deal with this problem when it comes to small-scale interventions (e.g. nudging), those do not work for large-scale interventions. Based on this, I offer a framework that allows us to preserve the central role of preferences for welfare assessment also in cases of large-scale interventions.