Behavioural Insights Projects

The COVID-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine, and other social and global political crises and incidents have increased the need to understand the mental resilience, preparedness, agency and sense of community of Finns in various crises and disruptions. This memorandum presents information related to these topics collected via the Citizens’ Pulse survey and citizen interviews commissioned by the Prime Minister’s Office in March and April 2022.

Institution: Prime Minister's Office - Finland

Team: Finnish Behavioural Policy Unit

Institution: Privy Council Office

Team: Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU)

In Germany there are significant gaps in measles vaccination which lead to repeated outbreaks of the disease. Vaccinations do more than just protect the recipient against infection. They also protect people who cannot be vaccinated, for example infants or people with certain chronic illnesses. However, many adults do not know that they are not completely vaccinated against measles. In order to close this information and vaccination gap, wirksam regieren compared various possible ways to provide…

Institution: Federal Chancellery- Germany

Team: Wirksam Regieren- Citizen-centered government

The objective of the practice is to apply the behavioural lens (behavioural governance) on the Good Relations pilot-project. During the spring 2023 Finnish Centre for Economic Development, Transport and Environment will be hosting about 20 decision maker events as a part of their Good Relations –project. These events are organized to bring together local decision makers (city councils and public officials) and different population and language groups to discuss good relations among local…

Institution: Prime Minister's Office - Finland

Team: Finnish Behavioural Policy Unit

The project has the objective of accompanying, complementing, and strengthening the jurisdictional efforts of re-linking and permanence of students in the educational system through the national program "Volvé a la escuela" (Go Back to School) and jurisdictional initiatives, based on simple and cost-effective behavioral science interventions such as cellphone messaging. A mobile messaging strategy (text message and/or Whatsapp) will be designed to encourage students and their families to…

Institution: Secretariat of Strategic Affairs of the Presidency of Argentina

Team: Behavioral Sciences and Public Policies Unit

Voting is a public good in that it benefits society and is an important part of a functioning democracy. Yet, many people fail to cast their ballot on election day because the individual benefits from voting are limited. Generally, people contribute more to public goods when their behavior is made more observable to others. However, voting is inherently private: very few people observe whether you actually show up on election day. In addition, existing channels used to encourage people to vote,…

Institution: Harvard Kennedy School

Team: Behavioural Insights Group

In a series of field experiments, six municipalities investigated whether a different approach in social assistance could get more people into work. The study focused on the effects of an exemption from the obligation to seek work, more intensive counselling or higher earnings disregards for additional income. A different approach can increase the number of people finding jobs. More research is needed. Why the experiments were conducted: increasing the effectiveness of the Participation…

Institution: Deventer, Groningen, Nijmegen, Utrecht, Tilburg and Wageningen

To promote college access and affordability, education tax credits help with the cost of college by reducing the amount of tax owed. The most generous Federal higher education tax credit, the American opportunity tax credit (AOTC), is a maximum annual credit of $2,500 per eligible student. Yet, many eligible students (or their families) do not claim the credit. Among eligible students, national estimates indicate that 46 percent of independent students and 56 percent of dependent students take…

Institution: General Services Administration (GSA)

Team: Office of Evaluation Sciences (OES)

Encouraging a more circular economy to lessen the impacts of climate change will require behavioural changes from Canadians. In partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), we have launched a program of research to help meet some of Canada’s recycling targets—90% collection rate for plastic beverage containers, and these containers to have 50% recycled plastic content by 2030. This research will use insights and approaches from behavioural science to understand and increase…

Institution: Privy Council Office

Team: Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU)

Small businesses were sent behaviorally-informed emails encouraging them to apply to the Growth Vouchers program. A key part of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills’ (BIS) remit is to provide support to small businesses in the United Kingdom. BIS has explored a number of initiatives to help these businesses grow. One of these initiatives was ‘Growth Vouchers’ – a program of matched funding with a £30 million budget. Businesses could apply for funding to help subsidize the…

Institution: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)

Team: Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)