Behavioural Insights Projects

There is extensive evidence that shows that poor nutrition is associated with a set of non-communicable diseases, which today constitute the main cause of death. Currently in Argentina, excess weight affects all age groups, with a prevalence of 66.1% in the adult population, 13.6% in children under 5 years of age, and 41.1% in the 5 to 17 age group. These figures are accompanied by inadequate eating habits, identifying wide food and nutritional gaps, due to deficit or excess, between current and…

Institution: Other

Team: Behavioral Sciences and Public Policies Unit

To support federal response efforts, Impact Canada is leading the implementation of the World Health Organization (WHO) Behavioural Insights (BI) Tool on COVID-19 in the Canadian context. This work is being led in collaboration with the Public Opinion Research Team within the Privy Council Office’s (PCO) Communications and Consultation Secretariat, which supports the Prime Minister’s Office in coordinating government communications in accordance with key priorities. Insights garnered will…

Institution: Privy Council Office

Team: Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU)

The aim of the project was to reduce common errors that self-employed taxpayers make when they complete certain sections of tax return form 1770, such as identifying their business category and declaring assets and liabilities. Taxpayers can make both intentional and unintentional errors. Our objective was to reduce unintentional errors associated with lack of knowledge.

Institution: Other

Team: Behavioural Insights Team (BIT)

'Returning to employment? Don't forget about your benefits!' When individuals receiving benefits return to employment having been registered as unemployed, it is important that they report the change in their income to the Benefits Unit on time, to avoid repayment demands. Why do individuals not comply with this notification requirement? And what interventions could improve compliance? A revised letter from the UWV Employee Insurance Agency and an additional page on the Benefits Unit website…

Institution: Netherlands Employee Insurance Agency (UWV)

This online experiment tested various ways in which sustainability measures for homeowners are presented on the website verbeterjehuis.nl, ‘improve your home’. The variant emphasising that the sustainability measures are 'recommended for your personal situation' proved to be most effective. This addition acts as an incentive to homeowners to install roof insulation or adopt other sustainability measures. Why this experiment was conducted: verbeterjehuis.nl website optimisation Homeowners…

Institution: Dutch Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy

PROJECT SUMMARY Text messages were delivered to parents of children from 3 to 5 years old enrolled in public preschools in Uruguay using a government mobile app. These messages targeted malleable factors producing students’ absences and sought to influence parent’s attitudes and beliefs about preschool attendance to increase children’s presence in the classroom. IMPACT Children in remote areas increased attendance by 1.5 days, suggesting an increase in cognitive development of 0.20 SD.…

Institution: Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)

Team: IDB Behavioral Economics Group

This project (running from 2017-2022) led to the development of a free digital tool, allowing landholders to explore options in the regulated carbon farming market. By providing landholders access to relevant methods, carbon sequestration estimates, and a listing of possible co-benefits, the LOOC-C tool helped demystify a challenging legislative environment for a farming-friendly audience. https://looc-c.farm/ A human-centred design process was championed through the entire development process,…

Institution: Other

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

Surveys give people an opportunity to be heard and provide government with vital information about the impact of its services. BETA partnered with Department of Social Services (DSS) to encourage more people to complete the Data Exchange survey. Data Exchange is new report platform developed by DSS to enable the collection of meaningful data about service delivery outcomes from organisations receiving community grants. As part of this platform, a client survey enables clients to self-report on…

Institution: Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC)

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

In a move aimed at improving how it registers its development cooperation activities, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs developed an application: IMPACT. This was successful in enabling budget holders to report activities more correctly: activities now have shorter names and are reported in English more often than previously. However, budget holders continue to use non-standard abbreviations. Why this experiment was conducted: reports do not always comply with appropriate standards The Ministry…

Institution: Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs