Benjamin van Rooij and Adam Fine, 2021, Yale University Press, 384 pages Don’t think that The Behavioral Code: The Hidden Ways the Law Makes Us Better Or Worse is yet another popular science book that simply rides on the wave caused by Nudge. It is not. Or actually, it is, but not in the way … Continue reading Brief book review – The Behavioral Code: The Hidden Ways the Law Makes Us Better Or Worse
Category: Behavioural insights
Brief book review – Nudge: The Final Edition
Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein, 2021, Yale University Press, 384 pages There will be few regulators who have not heard of the groundbreaking book Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness, published in 2008 by Professors Richard Thaler (University of Chicago) and Cass Sunstein (Harvard University). The authors have joined forces once more in … Continue reading Brief book review – Nudge: The Final Edition
Behavioural insight and regulatory practice: Available as open access paper
The use of insights from the behavioural sciences in the development and implementation of regulation has quickly received interest from governments and scholarship around the globe. There are good reasons for this. Reading the experiences reported by policymakers and regulators, it becomes clear that using insights from the behavioural sciences ‘allows policy-makers to better understand … Continue reading Behavioural insight and regulatory practice: Available as open access paper
Behavioural insights for effective regulation(4): Ethical and epistemic challenges
To conclude this review of the literature on the use of behavioural insights in regulation, I will zoom in on ethical and epistemic challenges. In other words, is it proper for governments to use people's heuristics and biases (or ‘cognitive failures’ as some call it) in guiding their behaviour? How can governments be sure that … Continue reading Behavioural insights for effective regulation(4): Ethical and epistemic challenges
Behavioural insights for effective regulation(3): Evidence and experiments
Now that we have a better understanding of human behaviour and have looked at some examples of regulatory interventions using insights from the behavioural sciences, it is time to ask the hard question: does it work? Answering the ‘does it work’ question is all but easy because of the variety of responses to that question … Continue reading Behavioural insights for effective regulation(3): Evidence and experiments
Behavioural insights for effective regulation(2): Examples from around the world
In the previous blog post, I have discussed (in broad brushstrokes) how our understanding of the rationality and irrationality of human behaviour has changed over time. In this one, I will introduce a variety of regulatory interventions from around the world that build on this changing understanding of predictable (ir)rational behaviour. Towards behavioural insights informed … Continue reading Behavioural insights for effective regulation(2): Examples from around the world
Behavioural insights for effective regulation: 10 of my favourite (popular science) books
At the Regulatory Clinics, people ask me what books to read to gain a better understanding of the biases and heuristics uncovered in the behavioural sciences, and the innovative regulatory responses that build on behavioural insights. Serving the rapid growth of interest in behavioural sciences from policymakers and practitioners, scholars from various fields (including behavioural … Continue reading Behavioural insights for effective regulation: 10 of my favourite (popular science) books
Behavioural insights for effective regulation: Presentation and notes
Over the next months, I will give a series of Regulatory Clinics to discuss the use of behavioural insights in regulatory practice with the G-REG community. In parallel, I will write a series of blog posts on the same topic. You will find these under the ‘research’ tab. The blog posts can be understood as … Continue reading Behavioural insights for effective regulation: Presentation and notes
Behavioural insights for effective regulation(1): The evolution of (ir)rational behaviour
The focus of the first year of the Chair in Regulatory Practice is on the use of insights from the behavioural sciences in regulation. Such regulation is often referred to as ‘Nudging’, following a famous book from 2008 by Professors Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein. In their book, Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and … Continue reading Behavioural insights for effective regulation(1): The evolution of (ir)rational behaviour
From the Regulatory Frontlines 