Reciprocity And The Art Of Behavioural Public Policy

Analysing reciprocity from a multidisciplinary perspective, Oliver considers how this concept can help to inform public policy design.

Behavioural public policy has thus far been dominated by approaches that are based on the premise that it is entirely legitimate for policymakers to design policies that nudge or influence people to avoid desires that may not be in their own self- interest. This book argues, instead, for a liberal political economy that radically departs from these paternalistic frameworks. Oliver argues for a framework whereby those who impose no substantive harms on others ought to be free of manipulative or coercive interference. On this view, BPP does not seek to “correct” an individual's conception of the desired life. This book is the third in a trilogy of books by Adam Oliver on the origins and conceptual foundations of BPP.

In recent years, a wave of reforms known as ‘nudges’ or ‘behavioural interventions’ have emerged in public policy and administration. ‘Nudge’ policies are created to lightly influence groups in society to change their behaviour, using behavioural insights to solve complex policy problems. Generally, behavioural approaches focus on the psychology underlying the implementation and effects of policies in practice. First published as a special issue of Policy & Politics journal, this book situates these reforms within a broader tradition of methodological individualism. With contributions from international scholars, it demonstrates that when behavioural policies expand their focus beyond the individual, they have the potential to better understand, investigate, and shape social outcomes.

An accessible introduction to how behavioural economics is used to influence and inform developments in public policy.

Herbert Simon’s renowned theory of bounded rationality is principally interested in cognitive constraints and environmental factors and influences which prevent people from thinking or behaving according to formal rationality. Simon’s theory has been expanded in numerous directions and taken up by various disciplines with an interest in how humans think and behave. This includes philosophy, psychology, neurocognitive sciences, economics, political science, sociology, management, and organization studies. The Routledge Handbook of Bounded Rationality draws together an international team of leading experts to survey the recent literature and the latest developments in these related fields. The chapters feature entries on key behavioural phenomena, including reasoning, judgement, decision making, uncertainty, risk, heuristics and biases, and fast and frugal heuristics. The text also examines current ideas such as fast and slow thinking, nudge, ecological rationality, evolutionary psychology, embodied cognition, and neurophilosophy. Overall, the volume serves to provide the most complete state-of-the-art collection on bounded rationality available. This book is essential reading for students and scholars of economics, psychology, neurocognitive sciences, political sciences, and philosophy.

A powerful critique of nudge theory and the paternalist policies of behavioral economics, and an argument for a more inclusive form of rationality.

In this accessible collection, leading academic economists, psychologists and philosophers apply behavioural economic findings to practical policy concerns.

The academic field of behavioral science has developed rapidly in recent decades. The field draws on research from across the social and natural sciences, and it has consistently shown that humans are not always rational. This insight has had a profound impact on multiple fields, including economics, political science, and law. Since the early 2000s, the application of behavioral science to public policy has also grown exponentially. Policymakers and practitioners now regularly use behavioral science to rethink how they develop programs and solve social problems. The impact has been far-reaching; behavioral science has transformed how we think about the economy, public health, education, and beyond. In practice, behavioral insights have been used to raise tax revenues, help people access social welfare program benefits and employment opportunities, increase voter turnout, boost medication adherence, and more. There are now hundreds of entities – international organizations, governments, business, and nonprofits – building and investing in internal behavioral science teams. Unfortunately, most of the hard work of putting these teams together and applying behavioral science insights happens “behind the scenes.” This book unearths some of the stories and insights from pioneers in applied behavioral science, in their own words. How did their teams come about, and how did they grow? What projects have worked, and which have not? What have they learned, and what would they recommend to others seeking to build behavioral science teams of their own?