Public Policy x Behavioral Economics

A few links on the topic.

1. Behavioral economics and public policy: A brief review from Tim Harford in The Financial Times (03/14). “So popular is the field that behavioral economics is now often misapplied as a catch-all term to refer to almost anything that’s cool in popular social science… Yet, as with any success story, the backlash has begun. Critics argue that the field is overhyped, trivial, unreliable, a smokescreen for bad policy, an intellectual dead-end — or possibly all of the above. Is behavioral economics doomed to reflect the limitations of its intellectual parents, psychology and economics? Or can it build on their strengths and offer a powerful set of tools for policy makers and academics alike?”
2. In Praise of Small Miracles: (12/14) David Brooks of The New York Times looks at some recent examples of policies underpinned by behavioral economics. “These are examples of a new kind of policy-making that is sweeping the world. The old style was based on the notion that human beings are rational actors who respond in straightforward ways to incentives. The new style, which supplements but does not replace the old style, is based on the obvious point that human beings are not always rational actors. Sometimes we’re mentally lazy, or stressed, or we’re influenced by social pressure and unconscious biases. It’s possible to take advantage of these features to enact change.”
3. World Development Report 2015 explores “Mind, Society, and Behavior”: (12/14) 200+ pages of really interesting insights. From the Overview: “The title of this Report, Mind, Society, and Behavior, captures the idea that paying attention to how humans think (the processes of mind) and how history and context shape thinking (the influence of society) can improve the design and implementation of development policies and interventions that target human choice and action (behavior). This Report aims to integrate recent findings on the psychological and social underpinnings of behavior to make them available for more systematic use by both researchers and practitioners in development communities. The Report draws on findings from many disciplines, including neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology, behavioral economics, sociology, political science, and anthropology.”
4. Raj Chetty on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy: (01/15) The Ideas42 blog (and FiveThirtyEight) gives a brief summary and links to video and slides for The American Economic Association (AEA) talk. “Chetty used the spotlight to make the case for a pragmatic approach to incorporating behavioral insights into economics. He outlined why behavioral factors should be used when they fit the data, and how these behavioral insights can lead to better public policy outcomes in three concrete ways: providing new tools, offering better predictions, and through new welfare implications.”
5. How behavioural economics does and can shape public policy: In October 2014 Andrew Leigh gave this talk, which is available in video and transcript format, and also summarised nicely here by The Mandarin. The event “outlined the main lessons of behavioural economics, and discussed the ways that it has affected policymaking in Australia. Lessons from theory and other countries suggest some of the ways that behavioural economics might continue to help us craft better policies in the future.”
6. FABBS Announces a New Policy Annual: Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences (PIBBS): ‘New’ as of early 2014. “Through PIBBS, FABBS will offer rigorous, innovative, empirically-based options to inform policy debate and decision making, demonstrating the value of behavioral and brain sciences and the need for continued and increasing funding. Likewise, future research will benefit from policy makers’ feedback about how scientific research could be applied to current policy issues, as well as policy areas that will benefit from increased scientific understanding.”