Policymakers around the world more and more often seek findings from behavioral sciences to inform public policies. The UK’s Behavioural Insights Team successfully demonstrated that in many cases the use of default options, social norms, or framing is the best and the most cost-effective response to various issues from diverse areas, such as health, energy, education, environment, financial products, consumer protection, or public service delivery.
Topics covered
- The (Ir)ristible Rise of BPP
- (De)Motivating Good Behaviour
- Guides for Choice Architects
- BPP Design Workshop, Presentations & Conclusion
- Introduction into BPP in Making
- BPP: when theory meets practice
- Project presentation: Behavioural Study on Consumers’ Engagement in the Circular Economy
- Reading a call for proposals, understanding clients’ needs and preparing a research design
- Ethics in behavioural economics applications
- Developing and Running an Experiment in Lioness Lab
- What Do Heuristics Have to Do with Policymaking?
- Behavioral Policymaking with Bounded Rationality
- EBE & Public Policy: Introduction
- Rationality in Economics vs. Rationality in Public Policies
- Rationality and Values in Public Policies
- Evolutionary Critique of Nudge Theory in Public Policy
- Do We Have a Free Will and What Does It Mean For Public Policies?
Schedule
Each lecture lasts 60 minutes. Morning lectures start at 8:30 and finish at 12:20. Afternoon lectures start at 13:30 and finish 17:30. If not set otherwise, the break after each lecture lasts 30 minutes. All times are in Central European Time (CET).
For students who participate face-to-face, there will be some icebreakers on August 8. Therefore for those who only have an advanced course (no crash course), the summer school starts on August 8.
ECTS requirements
To obtain the ECTS, a student has to get in total at least 60% of all available points which are being awarded for the following activities:
- attend all lectures (20 hrs. of WL / 1 pt. per hour, 20 in total)
- submit 4 homeworks (10 hrs. of WL / 2.5 pts. per homework, 10 in total)
- final exam (30 hrs. of WL / 30 pts.)
- final project (40 hrs. of WL / 40 pts.)
Literature
- Halpern, D. (2015). Inside the nudge unit: How small changes can make a big difference. Random House.
- Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2009). Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness. Penguin.
- Thaler, R. H., & Sunstein, C. R. (2003). Libertarian paternalism. American economic review, 93(2), 175-179.