Examples Of Perverse Incentives

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“Perverse incentives” are “… inadvertent incentives that can be created when we set out to do something completely different” (Wheelan, Pg. 36). There are many examples of this in the world. For example, “consider a well-intentioned proposal to require that all infants and small children be restrained in car seats while flying on commercial airlines” (Wheelan, Pg36). This idea with all of its good intention led to an undesirable outcome. Since parents would have to buy an extra seat, the prices would rise due to the extra seating and people would drive more. Driving is much more dangerous than flying and this could lead to more deaths due to the intention of protecting little children on airlines, not fewer deaths. Another example is when Mexico

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