1,724,079 research outputs found
Energy billing survey and RCTs
No full textThe Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA) partnered with the Australian Energy Regulator (AER) to apply behavioural insights to the design of energy bills. Two surveys were conducted involving around 6,300 (Group A) and 7,800 (Group B) Australians. A survey and six randomised controlled trials were conducted across the two samples. The final report based on this research was published in October 2021
Applying Behavioural Economics to International Development Policy
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Crowd counting: a behavioural economics perspective
No full textDevelopments in technology have facilitated the emergence of new crowd counting organisations. Some of the organisations have established platforms to disseminate their data, making it available to researchers for the first time. These databases promise to increase the quality and quantity of research in various fields. In the late 2010s, specialist crowd counting organisations emerged with the sole purpose of counting crowds at protests and disseminating the results, sometimes in a purely partisan manner. Because of the contemporary relevance of protest behaviour, we frame our discussion within this context. For social scientists considering the utilisation of these new databases, it is essential that crowd numbers be linked to underlying human behaviour in a way that promises a chain of connections to investigate and explore. We use behavioural economics to show why relative crowd size may be important for human decision-makers. And we show how the significance of relative crowd size relates to other aspects of the human decision-making process, including risk preferences and probability assessments. Far from being a theory of protest behaviour, we present a behavioural economics-based primer for empirical researchers and social scientists engaging with newly available crowd counting data. The conclusions may apply in other contexts and might be extended to encompass specific types of behaviour, including aggression and violence. Indeed, the conclusions may guide the analysis of the emergence of the crowd counting organisations themselves
Behavioural Economics: Classical and Modern
Get PDFIn this paper, the origins and development of behavioural economics, beginning with the pioneering works of Herbert Simon (1953) and Ward Edwards (1954), is traced, described and (critically) discussed, in some detail. Two kinds of behavioural economics – classical and modern – are attributed, respectively, to the two pioneers. The mathematical foundations of classical behavioural economics is identified, largely, to be in the theory of computation and computational complexity; the corresponding mathematical basis for modern behavioural economics is, on the other hand, claimed to be a notion of subjective probability (at least at its origins in the works of Ward Edwards). The economic theories of behavior, challenging various aspects of 'orthodox' theory, were decisively influenced by these two mathematical underpinnings of the two theoriesClassical Behavioural Economics, Modern Behavioural Economics, Subjective Probability, Model of Computation, Computational Complexity. Subjective Expected Utility
Neoclassical Economics’ Immunisation Strategies Against Behavioural Economics: Popper’s Perspective
No full textAlthough neoclassical economics faces frequent criticism, it remains the dominant paradigm, largely due to its immunisation strategies that rely on unfalsifiable concepts of utility and rationality. In this paper, I use Karl Popper’s philosophy to assess whether these strategies are justified. Firstly, I reconstruct Popper’s ideas on immunisation strategies, situational analysis, the rationality principle, and the metaphysical research programme. Next, I examine how neoclassical economics’ immunisation strategies counter critiques from behavioural economics. I conclude that neoclassical economics’ method does not produce empirical conjectures. I assess and evaluate this finding in relation to the “rationality principle”, as it parallels neoclassical economics’ optimisation axiom. Furthermore, I explore Popper’s relevance in the context of neoclassical economics’ recent incorporation of behavioural economics’ insights to show that my analysis is not purely historical
Behavioural economics and policy for pandemics: pandemics as tipping points
No full textThis book is the product of recent insights and contributions at the time of the global COVID-19 pandemic by several scholars in behavioural economics and health policy that are, in one way or another associated in some way with the London School of Economics (LSE). The book also benefits from many years of working together with a variety of collaborators in leading academic universities, policy-making bodies, public health authorities, and international institutions. The aim of this book is to bring closer together the perspectives and contributions of behavioural economics specialising in health, and health economists focused on behaviour, as well as health and behavioural public policy pieces providing lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic and in understanding the preparedness and response to future pandemic
Behavioural economics and policy for pandemics: insights from responses to COVID-19
No full textBehavioural economics and behavioural public policy have been fundamental parts of governmental responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. This was not only the case at the beginning of the pandemic as governments pondered how to get people to follow restrictions, but also during delivery of the vaccination programme. Behavioural Economics and Policy for Pandemics brings together a world-class line-up of experts to examine the successes and failures of behavioural economics and policy in relation to the Covid-19 pandemic. It documents how people changed their behaviours and use of health care and discusses what we can learn in terms of addressing future pandemics. Featuring high-profile behavioural economists such as George Loewenstein, this book uniquely uncovers behavioural regularities that emerge in the different waves of COVID-19 and documents how pandemics change our lives
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The Role of Behavioural Economics in Energy and Climate Policy
Get PDFThis article explores how behavioural economics can be applied to
energy and climate policy. We present an overview of main concepts of
behavioural economics and discuss how they differ from the
assumptions of neoclassical economics. Next, we discuss how
behavioural economics applies to three areas of energy policy: (1)
consumption and habits, (2) investment in energy efficiency, and (3)
provision of public goods and support for pro-environmental behaviour.
We conclude that behavioural economics seems unlikely to provide the
magic bullet to reduce energy consumption by the magnitude required
by the International Energy Agency's “450” climate policy scenario.
However it offers new suggestions as to where to start looking for
potentially sustainable changes in energy consumption. We believe that
the most useful role within climate policy is in addressing issues of
public perception of the affordability of climate policy and in facilitating
the creation of a more responsive energy demand, better capable of
responding to weather-induced changes in renewable electricity supply
Space junk: Behavioural economics and the prioritisation of solutions
No full textThe use and exploration of outer space is, according to the Outer Space Treaty (OST), to be carried out for the benefit and interest of all parties. Outer space is critically important to the defence and national security interests of many nations, none more so than the United States. Over time, a significant space junk problem has emerged. There is growing recognition of this problem and reason to believe that it will only get worse if current activities continue. Space junk presents a threat to the national security interests and economic interests of spacefaring nations. Various solutions are being proposed and developed. This paper presents an economic perspective and, in a particular, a behavioural economics perspective, on the space junk and national security problem. As various potential technological solutions emerge, we are interested in the obstacles that may stand in the way of an optimal prioritisation of the alternatives
The behavioural economics of culture
No full textWe make the case for further advancing cultural economics through the application of behavioural economics methods and insights. Behavioural economics offers a reconciliation of two distinct strands within cultural economics, one that observes neoclassical economic method, and one that affirms the abundant psychological aspects of cultural economising. We argue that behavioural economics is well positioned for a synthesis as it was designed for the study of psychological ‘anomalies’ within the spirit and methodology of economics. We identify and discuss selected contributions to this emergent but dispersed literature and highlight promising areas that may be further investigated. We also explore the potential for behavioural economics to contribute to cultural policy
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