Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?

Governments are increasingly adopting behavioral science techniques for changing individual behavior in pursuit of policy objectives. The types of "nudge" interventions that governments are now adopting alter people's decisions without coercion or significant changes to economic incen...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science 2017-08, Vol.28 (8), p.1041-1055
Main Authors: Benartzi, Shlomo, Beshears, John, Milkman, Katherine L., Sunstein, Cass R., Thaler, Richard H., Shankar, Maya, Tucker-Ray, Will, Congdon, William J., Gating, Steven
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Behavior modification
Behavioral Sciences
Coercion
Cost analysis
Economic incentives
Financial incentives
Government
Government Programs
Humans
Intervention
Policy
Tax incentives
Taxation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Governments are increasingly adopting behavioral science techniques for changing individual behavior in pursuit of policy objectives. The types of "nudge" interventions that governments are now adopting alter people's decisions without coercion or significant changes to economic incentives. We calculated ratios of impact to cost for nudge interventions and for traditional policy tools, such as tax incentives and other financial inducements, and we found that nudge interventions often compare favorably with traditional interventions. We conclude that nudging is a valuable approach that should be used more often in conjunction with traditional policies, but more calculations are needed to determine the relative effectiveness of nudging.
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797617702501