As rewards increasingly become an instrument used by policymakers, it is important to find a reward mechanism that does not crowd out intrinsic motivation, is long lasting, and has positive spillover effects on third parties. A policy innovation introduced by the Municipality of Santa Fe (Argentina) allowed us to evaluate different mechanisms for rewarding tax compliance – participation in a lottery (financial motive), public recognition (moral channel), and provision of a visible and durable…
Behavioural Insights Projects
Discover projects applying behavioural science to policy from around the world. Add your own projects, whether completed or still ongoing, to contribute knowledge on BI applications across different countries, policy areas, and topics of interest.
Number of BI projects:
0
Legend: Projects status
- Pre-registered project
- Completed project
This website, as well as any data and map included herein, are without prejudice to the status of or sovereignty over any territory, to the delimitation of international frontiers and boundaries and to the name of any territory, city or area.
Not all UWV clients who receive unemployment benefit post their CVs on werk.nl. This prevents them from being found or matched for a job. Would it help to send them a reminder to their personal Work Folder as well as a text message? Yes it would: this experiment shows that five times more clients are then prompted to put their CV online, compared to clients who are not sent a reminder.
Why this experiment was conducted: missing CVs
25% of jobseekers on unemployment benefit who are asked to post…
The Ministry of Justice and Security developed a behavioural intervention aimed at inspiring individuals to adopt safe cyber practices: 'Valse email? Meld het via de meldknop' (Fake email? Report it using the report button). Thanks to this behavioural intervention, employees are ten times more likely to report suspicious emails internally. Moreover, click rates on links in suspicious emails have significantly decreased.
Why this experiment was conducted: One in five SMEs have been victims of…
The problem
In Victoria, families need to consent to organ donation. Nine out of 10 families will consent to organ donation if a person has registered their intent to donate. But while 69% of Australians say they would donate their organs, only 33% of the adult population has registered. This is an example of the intention-action gap.
Behavioural insights concept: The intention-action gap refers to the difference between what people say they want to do, and what they actually do. It occurs in…
Challenge
Tax delinquencies are a major problem for most tax administrations in the world. In Colombia, the National Accountant Office estimated the total outstanding debt to the National Tax Agency at $2.5 billion, which represents about 20 percent of estimated total tax evasion in 2014. Finding ways to reduce tax delinquencies is critical for both fiscal and equity considerations. A previous study compared messages about due liabilities delivered through three channels (letter, email, or…
BI Project
Social Multipliers at Work: Improving Children’s Outcomes Through Aspirations and Role Models
Every year, governments spend large amounts
of resources on development programs that aim
to change poor households’ behaviors and attitudes
toward investment in the education, health, and
nutrition of their children as a way to end the cycle
of poverty. One key mechanism that can achieve this
is working to raise aspirations. But how do you do
that in practice?
In this project, together with Karen Macours of the
Paris School of Economics and the Ministry of Family
in Nicaragua, we find that…
In connection with the 2022 county elections, an experiment was conducted in Finland for the first time to examine the impact of text message reminders on the voting turnout of young people. In the experiment, young people (aged 18 to 29) were messaged twice about the schedule of the county elections and their right to vote. The aim of the study was to find out whether a text message reminder increases voting turnout. The experiment was carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Justice and…
BI Project
Encouraging the wearing of face masks in hospitality venues: how to ensure guests wear face masks in…
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, guests were required to wear face masks on entering and while moving inside hospitality venues. To promote this behaviour, self-persuasion and salience techniques were used in this experiment - with notable success. Following the announced relaxation of face mask requirements, there was a decrease in face mask usage, although this was significantly less in hospitality venues that saw interventions than in venues that did not experience interventions.
Why this…