A Behavioral Economics Approach to Digitalization: The Case of a Principles-Based Taxonomy

Technological improvement in the age of information has increased the
possibilities to control the innocent social media users or penalize private
investors and reap the benefits of their existence in hidden persuasion and
discrimination. This chapter takes as a case the transparency technology
XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language), which should make
data more accessible as well as usable for private investors. Considering
theoretical literature and field research, a representation issue for principlesbased accounting taxonomies exists, which intelligent machines applying artificial intelligence (AI) nudge to facilitate decision usefulness. This chapter conceptualizes ethical questions arising from the taxonomy engineering
based on machine learning systems and advocates for a democratization of
information, education, and transparency about nudges and coding rules.