Behavioural Insights for EU Policymaking

Bavel, René van

doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-822596-7.00017-6

Cited by 11 publications

(14 citation statements)

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“…In addition, methodological bias limits the areas in which behavioural insights can be applied from the outset. Hence, it is stated that BPP requires the whole range of scientific disciplines and methods (van Bavel and Dessart, 2018) to conduct more far-reaching experiments that can be pre-tested and piloted before becoming mainstream policies (Lunn and Robertson, 2018). As this criticism suggests, the methods that underpin most nudges cannot adequately address the ‘actual “thorny” behavioural problems that traditional policies often seem to get wrong from the beginning’ (Hansen, 2018: 192).…”

Section: The Essence Of Nudge and Its Criticismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving beyond the obsession with nudging individual behaviour: Towards a broader understanding of Behavioural Public Policy

Ewert

2019

Public Policy and Administration

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Behavioural interventions are much more than 'just another policy tool'. Indeed, the use of behavioural science has the potential to lead to a wide-ranging reassessment of policymaking and public administration. However, Behavioural Public Policy remains a policy paradigm 'under construction'. This paper seeks to contribute to this development process by investigating the conceptual features of advanced Behavioural Public Policy that go beyond the now familiar notion of nudging individual behavioural change. It thus seeks to provide more illumination in a debate which currently seems to have become stuck on the pro and cons of nudging citizens' individual behaviours. In reality, Behavioural Public Policy should be seen as a pluralist, non-deterministic and multipurpose approach that allows the application of behavioural insights 'throughout the policy process' and in combination with regulatory policies. The paper's line of argument unfolds in three steps. First, it explores the policy rationales that have driven nudge techniques and also summarises the conceptual, methodological, ethical and ideological criticisms that have made of it. In a second step, state-of-the-art Behavioural Public Policy, which claims to be more substantial and wide-ranging than today's nudge techniques, is empirically examined through interviews conducted with global thinkers (academics and practitioners) in the field of behavioural

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Section: The Essence Of Nudge and Its Criticismmentioning

confidence: 99%

Moving beyond the obsession with nudging individual behaviour: Towards a broader understanding of Behavioural Public Policy

Ewert

2019

Public Policy and Administration

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“…To strengthen individual capabilities, the European Commission has, for instance, offered a summer school in behavioural economics for policy-makers and issued guidelines on applying behavioural insights (Van Bavel, Herrmann, Esposito, & Proestakis, 2013). Similarly, the UK BIT has developed a guide called 'MINDSPACE' to popularise the most robust behavioural insights among policy-makers (BIT, 2010;Dolan et al, 2012).…”

Section: Capacity Building and Positive Integrationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The challenges of behavioural insights for effective policy design

Kuehnhanss

2018

Policy and Society

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Behavioural insights are becoming increasingly popular with policy practitioners. Findings and methods originally provided by cognitive psychology and later behavioural economics have found use in the formulation of public policies. Their most popularised application has emerged under the auspices of libertarian paternalism in the form of 'nudging'. Its proponents claim to provide a new instrument to facilitate the formulation of effective and evidence-based policy, taking people's actual behaviour into account from the outset, while preserving their liberty to choose. This article reviews the origins of libertarian paternalism and the behavioural insights it builds on and takes a critical look at the foundations nudging relies on as a policy tool. It also discusses the ongoing efforts to build policy capacity to integrate behavioural insights and experimental methods in the creation of public policy. Behavioural insights offer a powerful tool to reshape and design new evidence-based policy. However, designers ought to be aware of the underlying assumptions on individual behaviour, the broadness of the mandate the nudging approach claims and the challenges they pose for design effectiveness.

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“…Prototypical are the update reports in which the interventions and outcomes are shared by forerunners in the BI field (e.g. Van Bavel et al 2013;Lourenço et al 2016;OECD 2017). A narrow focus exists on interventions, and in fact, a limited selection of emblematic success stories.…”

Section: The Need For Empirical Depth and Breadthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Following in BIT UK's footsteps, many international policy actors launched similar initiatives of their own, including the European Commission, the OECD, the World Bank, and governments in France, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Qatar, Ireland, Lebanon, Denmark, Australia, Japan, the Netherlands, the United States, and Singapore (e.g. Lunn 2012;Van Bavel et al 2013;Lourenço et al 2016;Jones et al 2013;Whitehead et al 2014;. A worldwide BI community was in the making.…”

Section: The Rise Of the Behavioural Insights Movementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inside the behavioural state

Feitsma¹

2020

Bestuurskunde

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1.1 Initiation into the behavioural state The emerging behavioural state: promise, pressure or phantom? How confident is present-day government? Not too confident, it would seem. Solving public problems is generally seen as an arduous challenge. Our late modern society doesn't lend itself to be 'engineered'. It has only become more uncertain, complex, and 'liquid' (Bauman 1999) than before (e.g. Beck 1992; Giddens 1998). This acknowledgement of complexity reflects how today's policymakers think, 'see' and act. They commonly acknowledge that some policy issues have become 'wicked' (Head 2008): so convoluted and contested-both substantively and procedurally, empirically and normatively-that they can at best be 'tamed'. Also, today's policymakers-part of the New Public Governance paradigm-generally realize that they are heavily dependent on other societal actors to get things done and that forging strong and unified public-private networks is far from easy. So they buckle up, strengthen their tolerance for uncertainty and nonperformance, and confess that public problem-solving simply isn't easy. And yet, in the past two decades a policy trend has emerged that goes in the opposite direction of a modest state. This trend has given birth to a type of state that seems all too confident about its ability to shape society. This confidence is drawn from the opportunities discovered by recent advances in the behavioural sciences. A body of 'behavioural insights' (e.g. Dolan et al. 2010; OECD 2017; Lourenço et al. 2016) has developed rapidly, showing how humans often don't make decisions in wholly rational, but often more automatic ways. These insights have given rise to an unorthodox policy style, which subtly intervenes in the everyday spaces of society based on rigorous behavioural analyses and experiments (e.g.

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Behavioural Insights for EU Policymaking

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Moving beyond the obsession with nudging individual behaviour: Towards a broader understanding of Behavioural Public Policy

Moving beyond the obsession with nudging individual behaviour: Towards a broader understanding of Behavioural Public Policy

The challenges of behavioural insights for effective policy design

Inside the behavioural state

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