---
title: Nirvana Fallacy
tags:
  - status/draft
  - type/encyclopedia-entry
---
# Nirvana Fallacy

The [nirvana fallacy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_fallacy)
also called the "perfect solution fallacy"
is the mistake made when a solution proposed to replace one existing
is judged against a hypothetical perfect solution
rather than the solution in current use.

> [!quote] Harold Demsetz "Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint" (1969)[^1]
> The view that now pervades much public policy economics
> implicitly presents the relevant choice
> as between an ideal norm and an existing "imperfect" institutional arrangement.
> This _nirvana_ approach differs considerably
> from a _comparative institution_ approach
> in which the relevant choice is between alternative real institutional arrangements.

[^1]: Harold Demsetz
    "Information and Efficiency: Another Viewpoint"
    _The Journal of Law and Economics_
    Volume 12, Number 1
    (April 1969)
    [doi:10.1086/466657](https://doi.org/10.1086%2F466657)
