Global: Behavioural Insights

In this project, São Paulo City Hall tested and evaluated the reformulation of collection instruments taking into account behavioral aspects. Currently the relationship between the City Hall and taxpayers is based on repressive inspections, difficult to understand communications and complex flows of payments.  With the reformulation of how the IPTU is collected, this increased the municipal tax collection by R $ 60 million/ year. Further experiments have allowed for the estimation that an…

According to the 2021 OECD Trust Survey, a majority of citizens are satisfied with their government’s delivery of public services. However, they also think there is little chance of a service being improved if people complained. OECD countries have already committed to Building Trust and Reinforcing Democracy through a broad set of actions to respond to some of the key governance challenges. One of the ways to do this is to improve government services, through...

The Network of Behavioural Insights Experts in Government met in Paris at the OECD in May 2023. Over 100 delegates from 44 countries joined the network’s first hybrid event to discuss the future of applied behavioural science, including in a conversation with Professor Lucia A. Reisch and Professor Ralph Hertwig. Here we attempt to bring forward the main takeaways from that conversation for behavioural science practitioners. Applied behavioural scientists are grappling with multiple important…

Tourism and sustainability are two words not often seen in the same sentence. Yet, with rising climate mitigation and adaptation commitments set aside the severe impacts of the pandemic on the tourism industry, governments are working to develop new strategies that strike a balance.

Since the first behavioural insights (BI) unit in 2010, many BI teams have emerged around the world. While varying in missions, models, and methodologies, they share the common goal of enhancing our understanding ‘what makes people tick’ and how we might use this information for the betterment of policy and society. In 2017, the OECD published a first report on BI and Public Policy that presented data and insights from 60 pioneering BI units.   Unsurprisingly,...

We are on the lookout for game-changing, freely available toolkits that can ignite innovative thinking and drive progress in governments worldwide. As the hosts of OECD Toolkit Navigator, one of the world’s largest compendia of public sector innovation toolkits, we’re excited to collaborate with you to identify fresh, forward-thinking resources to support governments and public servants in the design and delivery of better policies and services.   Five minutes – that’s all it…