Behavioural Insights Projects

Online experiment to explore the effect of notifications on security behaviour. Both increased secure behavior – but the coping message significantly more so. The coping message was also as effective as both messages combined, but not so the threat appeal. Risk attitudes, age and country had a significant effect on behavior.

Institution: European Commission

Team: JRC Competence Centre on Behavioural Insights

Regulators require lenders to display a subset of credit card features in summary tables before customers finalize a credit card choice. Some jurisdictions require some features to be displayed more prominently than others to help ensure that consumers are made aware of them. This approach could lead to untoward effects on choice, such that relevant but nonprominent product features do not factor in as significantly. To test this possibility, we instructed a random sample of 1615 adults to…

Institution: Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR)

Team: Behavioural Economics in Action at Rotman (BEAR)

Countries across the globe suffer from high rates of youth unemployment and inactivity. The Maldives are not immune. Despite efforts by the government to increase employment opportunities among young Maldivians, including the establishment of employment quotas for nationals, results have been underwhelming. Young people face barriers such as social and gender norms around women’s role in society, absence of role models to look up to, and few jobs perceived as “suitable” for…

Institution: World Bank

Team: eMBeD, Mind Behaviour and Development team

The pervasive use of single-use plastic bags presents a growing environmental challenge globally. Despite legislative efforts, such as the mandatory 5p bag-charge introduced in England in October 2015, the problem persists. The issue took on renewed urgency in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has seen a regression in consumer habits towards increased use of single-use plastics, driven by health and safety concerns (Adyel, 2020). While traditional economic theory suggests that incentives…

Institution: Other

Team: Oxford

Saving while being overdrawn costs consumers money. The interest they have to pay is far more than the interest they receive. An experiment tested two interventions aimed at encouraging consumers to use their savings to clear any overdraft, by pre-entering a repayment amount and giving explicit information about costs. These interventions lead to better choices amongst many, although not yet all, consumers. Why this experiment was conducted: saving while being overdrawn costs Dutch citizens…

Institution: Dutch Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM)

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) is preparing to deliver the next Census of Population and Housing (the Census) in 2021. BETA has partnered with the ABS to make it easier and more convenient for people to engage with the Census process.

Institution: Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC)

Team: Behavioural Economics Team of the Australian Government (BETA)

In partnership with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) and Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU) has launched a multi-year program of research on climate change. The Program of Applied Research on Climate Action in Canada (PARCA Canada) combines behavioural science (BeSci) insights and methods with robust policy analysis to promote climate action. One of the main areas of focus involves the launch of a longitudinal survey that will, over time, collect…

Institution: Privy Council Office

Team: Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU)

The Environmental Habits and Values Survey (2020) aims to explore the values, opinions, attitudes and behaviour of Barcelona's citizens in relation to the environment, sustainability and climate change. This study was launched in 2000 and is carried out every four years. This year, 2024, the questions have been revised and the project is on-going. The series has a dual value: on the one hand, it provides a snapshot of the values and attitudes of Barcelona residents at the time the survey is…

Institution: Other

Team: Climate change and sustainability office

The Municipality of Dordrecht organised a competition titled The Cleanest Neighbourhood in Dordrecht. The aim was to get residents to place less rubbish next to underground waste containers. As a result of the experiment, the amount of waste left next to bins decreased and a new social norm was established. Why this experiment was conducted: rubbish left next to waste containers Bin liners and other bags containing residual and larger waste left next to underground containers rank amongst the…

Institution: Netherlands Municipality of Dordrecht

Tax amnesties, a limited-time opportunity for a specified group of taxpayers to pay a defined amount of tax liabilities, are broadly used across countries because they generate short-term revenue gains. However, evidence suggest that tax amnesties fail to have long-term effects, and in some cases, they generate negative effects on compliance. With the goal of evaluating the impact of tax amnesties, this experiment relies on the behavioral principle of limited attention and redesigns the…

Institution: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Team: IDB Behavioral Economics Group