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

In Turkey, the years between 2012 and 2017 saw a steadily rising labor force participation rate but also unemployment. New workers, including women and youth, joined those already in the market increasing the competition for available jobs. At the same time, employers, reported difficulties finding workers with appropriate workplace competencies when filling vacancies, particularly when it came to job-related behaviors. The Turkish Employment Agency (ISKUR) and the World Bank teamed up to test…

Institution: World Bank

Team: eMBeD, Mind Behaviour and Development team

Contact-tracing mobile phone apps have the potential to play a role in controlling the spread of COVID-19, but their success hinges on widespread uptake by the public. We report a study that behaviourally pre-tested COVID Tracker, Ireland’s contact-tracing app, prior to its launch with a large sample of smartphone users. The study was funded by the Department of Health and run in co-operation with the app’s developers, NearForm. Participants were randomised to receive different versions of a…

Institution: Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI)

Team: ESRI Behavioural Research Unit

In regions marked by fragility, conflict, and violence (FCV), entrepreneurs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face increased risk of experiencing chronic stress and poor mentalhealth. In turn, this can lead to poor psychological outcomes, hamper their business performance,and weaken the benefits of existing financial and business assistance programs. The World Bank’s Finance, Competitiveness, and Innovation (FCI) Global Practice, in collaboration with the Mind, Behavior, and…

Institution: World Bank

Team: eMBeD, Mind Behaviour and Development team

In partnership with the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Office of Behavioural Science (BeSciO), the Privy Council Office’s Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU) has launched a multi-wave public opinion research survey to better understand public health challenges in Canada. The 'Health, Attitudes, and Behavioural Insights Trends' (HABIT) survey, combines research methods from the field of behavioural science (BeSci) with robust policy analysis to help inform government policies, programs, and…

Institution: Privy Council Office

Team: Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU)

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)

The Environment Act 1986 established the Ministry for the Environment (MfE), which is the primary adviser of the New Zealand Government on environmental matters. The purpose statement for the MfE is “A flourishing environment for every generation – He taiao tōnui mō ngā reanga katoa [te reo version, the indigenous language of the Māori people]. MfE is actively engaged in reducing waste across the country, as illustrated by the recent Aotearoa New Zealand Waste Strategy. To lead by…

Institution: Other

Team: Systems Change and Capability

Water scarcity remains common in Brazil, especially in the Recife Metropolitan Region (RMR) in the State of Pernambuco. The RMR is subject to particularly high levels of non-revenue water—which occur when high volumes of water produced do not generate revenue for the supplier. While some losses may be due to structural and operational inefficiencies such as leaky pipes, clients also play a key role by defaulting on their water payments or installing bypasses to consume water free of charge.…

Institution: World Bank

Team: eMBeD, Mind Behaviour and Development team

Some jobseekers remain unemployed because they focus on professions and felds in which the job prospects are not favourable. What happens when they receive personalised labour market information about more promising professions and positions that match their knowledge and skills? Compared to people who do not receive that information, they are more likely to move into professions that are completely different from the profession with poor job outlooks that was their first preference. Why this…

Institution: Netherlands Employee Insurance Agency (UWV)

The study explores consumers’ understanding of the individual elements of the energy label and how the label design influences consumer choice. To this end, the study implemented two behavioural experiments to measure cognitive and behavioural responses to various label elements.

Institution: European Commission

Team: JRC Competence Centre on Behavioural Insights