Can Not Wanting to Wear a Mask be Rational?

Batabyal, Amitrajeet (2021): Can Not Wanting to Wear a Mask be Rational?

Abstract

I answer the question in the title by analyzing an office environment in which n∈N individuals work together in an enclosed area. The ith worker wears his mask for h_i hours per day and this action involves a disutility. His health benefit from wearing a mask depends on how his mask wearing compares with the mask wearing of his co-workers. In this setting, I first compute the symmetric Nash equilibrium that describes the optimal number of hours of mask wearing by each worker. Second, I compute the Pareto efficient level of mask wearing on the part of the n workers. Finally, I explain why there is excessive mask wearing in the Nash equilibrium and then point out that it can indeed be rational to not want to wear a mask.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Mask, Nash Equilibrium, Pareto Efficiency, Rat Race
• Subjects: I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I1 - Health > I12 - Health Behavior; I - Health, Education, and Welfare > I3 - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty > I31 - General Welfare, Well-Being

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