arXiv：cs.AI· Louis Yiven Zhu·· 7 小时前
神经证据与行为福利经济学：神经经济学何时能为政策提供依据？
Neural Evidence and Behavioural Welfare Economics: When Can Neuroeconomics Inform Policy?
AI 导读
论文提出神经数据约束福利分析需满足四项条件：神经测量的有效性、决策模型的可识别性、福利标准的明确表述，以及政策使用的制度背景。作者将该框架应用于成瘾、神经营销和环境政策，并以英国《2026年烟草与电子烟法案》为例，开发出神经经济学福利推断清单。研究强调神经数据能阐明选择背后的机制，但不能取代关于福利定义的规范性论证；该推理同样适用于基于人类反馈训练的人工智能体，其内部奖励信号是计算量而非福利度量。
正文
Abstract:Neuroeconomics appears to offer welfare economics an evidential supplement, since neural data may help distinguish choices that express genuine preferences from choices distorted by addiction, framing or self-control failure. This paper asks when such evidence can legitimately inform welfare judgements for policy. It develops a conceptual framework linking three levels of analysis, namely neural signals, computational decision models and normative welfare criteria. The central argument is that neural data can constrain welfare analysis only under four conditions, covering the validity of the neural measure, the identifiability of the decision model, the explicit statement of the welfare criterion, and the institutional context of any policy use. Applying this framework to addiction, neuromarketing and environmental policy, and working through the United Kingdom's Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, a major intervention justified without any neural measurement, the paper develops a Neuroeconomic Welfare Inference Checklist for neural evidence. Neural data can improve behavioural welfare economics by clarifying the mechanisms behind choice, and they cannot replace normative argument about what counts as welfare. The same reasoning applies to artificial agents trained on human feedback, whose internal reward signals are computational quantities and not welfare measures.
| Comments: | UCL Journal of Economics 2026 |
| Subjects: | Machine Learning (cs.LG); Artificial Intelligence (cs.AI); Computers and Society (cs.CY); General Economics (econ.GN); Neurons and Cognition (q-bio.NC) |
| Cite as: | arXiv:2511.19548 [cs.LG] |
| (or arXiv:2511.19548v2 [cs.LG] for this version) | |
| https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2511.19548 arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite |
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| Journal reference: | UCL Journal of Economics, vol. 5 no. 1 (2026) |
| Related DOI: | https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444.2755-0877.2257
DOI(s) linking to related resources |
Submission history
From: Louis Yiven Zhu [view email]
[v1]
Mon, 24 Nov 2025 12:34:40 UTC (782 KB)
[v2]
Mon, 12 Oct 2026 13:58:49 UTC (884 KB)
来源：arXiv：cs.AI · arxiv.org