Behavioural Insights Projects

Rijkswaterstaat (the Directorate-General for Public Works and Water Management) wants to induce behavioural change in several areas. The circular economy is one example. A study examined whether consumers will make more sustainable choices if they have been complimented on their past actions or behaviour that were environmentally friendly or sustainable. This proved to be the case. Why this experiment was conducted: additional incentive for sustainable behaviour Behavioural change is…

Institution: Rijkswaterstaat's Circular Economy & Waste department

Electricity bills are a key way to inform people about their plan and usage, but bills can be confusing and are not really useful to help people navigate the electricity market. BETA and the Department of the Environment and Energy ran a trial to test the impact of bill design on people’s confidence in their ability to look for a better offer and intention to do so. We drew on behavioural insights to design and test six electricity bills. We focussed on simplifying bill design to draw…

Institution: Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC)

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

Why this experiment was conducted: scepticism about second-hand clothes The clothing industry is a major polluter, and the second-hand market is an important alternative to new clothes. While more and more Dutch consumers are turning to pre-owned clothing, a large group remains sceptical. According to a target group study conducted in 2020, they wonder whether they will be able to find a suitable second-hand item, and whether it is hygienic. The best way to overcome this scepticism is to create…

Institution: Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management

To reduce the speed of motor vehicles on the Yarze highway, Nudge Lebanon, in collaboration with the Traffic Management Centre (TMC), placed a salient image of overlooking eyes, coupled with a message informing drivers that their speed was being monitored on a Variable Message Sign (VMS). Vehicles in treatment time slots, with speeds above 100km/h reduced their speed by around 11.5% compared to similar vehicles in the control group. Moreover, compared to the control group, the treatment was more…

Institution: Nudge Lebanon

Team: Nudge Lebanon

Behaviorally informed messages have had demonstrated success in increasing tax compliance in multiple regional settings. In Indonesia, which has the largest economy in Southeast Asia, a trial from the Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) and World Bank teams looked at whether behaviorally informed messages and materials can impact tax compliance and payment rates among small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The results showed, to get delinquent firms to pay their taxes, information is not enough -…

Institution: World Bank

Team: eMBeD, Mind Behaviour and Development team

How does the presence of consumer protection affect decisions at retirement? Oxera undertook a behavioural experiment for the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) to understand the role of FSCS protection—in both how consumers select their retirement income products, and whether they choose to obtain financial advice. This revealed how people behave in a realistic environment, providing insight into actual consumer behaviour and the importance of the FSCS in their decision-making.

Institution: Oxera Consulting

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 collecting data on emerging topics related to the promotion of climate action in Canada (e.g., transportation, energy use, waste management, etc.) using a large and nationally representative sample of Canadians. The current project is the second wave of a repeated…

Institution: Impact and Innovation Hub (IIU)- Impact Canada

Team: Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU)

Soiled waste disposal areas in municipal public housing buildings are not only a major nuisance for residents, but also cause high cleaning costs. The aim of the present study was to develop behavioral measures to promote cleanliness and to test them in a field experiment with about 400 waste disposal areas. The present paper compares two System-1 (large posters displaying watching eyes and a natural landscape) and two System-2 (financial information, information on normative behavior and…

Institution: Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS)

Team: Insight Austria

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)

Parents within the Child Support Program can apply for a Change of Assessment (CoA) when they experience a change in their circumstances that might affect their child support payments or entitlements. This is done by lodging an application with the Department of Human Services (DHS). The aim of the study is to examine whether providing timely and salient information about the receipt and process of a claim improves process transparency and saves client time and effort by reducing the need for…

Institution: Prime Minister and Cabinet (PMC)

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