Three v smart, well-meaning liberal economists thinking how to get more people to report a positive test to the (German) Corona app. (Few do.) If you read German , but the basic idea is to pay ppl to do so.
Unhelpful mini-rant-thread:

1/n https://twitter.com/BachmannRudi/status/1340001940743319554

The rationale for a government payout is clear: there's a positive externality to reporting. Ironically liberal economists hereby confirm an idea emphasised by many leftwing political philosophers (i.a. Marx, Habermas, recently @BrankoMilan).
2/n

Namely that capitalism undermines values without which the economy/society perform poorly and which may ultimately be unsustainable. Commodification weakens the sense of civic duty. (Conservatives may see a problem here too.) The response is to commodify altruistic acts.
3/n

The danger, of course, is that providing monetary incentives creates expectations that make it ever harder to rely on social solidarity/civic duty.
Turning to the specific case at hand, the starting point is that reporting the positive test to the app is too complex.
4/n

I did it (the "complicated" way, w/ 2 phone calls. If you have a code it sd be easier). It's about 1/20th the hassle of buying a Ryanair ticket. The point, of course, is you want to fly to Barcelona. Do you want to warn your fellow citizens? Are they in your utility function?
5/n

The liberal econ answer ( @BachmannRudi @christianbaye13 @DanielGrosCEPS): no, or not enough. So offer a pecuniary incentive. I am not knocking that. Faced with Covid's horrors, pursuing this line of thinking is not only legitimate, it is emminently reasonable.
Still.
6/n

Shouldn't we also be asking ourselves why so few people are prepared to sacrifice a couple of minutes of their time - no money - to potentially save people in their immediate environment from the risk of premature death. And contribute to ending restrictive measures sooner?
7/n

The left-political-philosophy response, in a nutshell, would be that the return of crass inequality, the weakening of social security and insurance, the marketisation of formerly publicly provided services - whatever the efficiency gains - have undermined social solidarity.
8/n

Ppl understandably react to the above by saying if it doesn't have a price, it doesnt have value.
If we don't wanna end up offering state subsidies for all kinds of virtuous behaviour, maybe we should think about how to convince ppl that we really are all in this together.
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