Beyond nudge: advancing the state-of-the-art of behavioural public policy and administration

Abstract

This Themed Issue features theoretical, methodological, and empirical advancements of the state-of-the-art in behavioural public policy and administration. In this introduction, we develop a behaviourally-informed, integrated conceptual model of the policy process that embeds individual attitudes and behaviour into context at the meso and macro level. We argue that behavioural approaches can be situated within a broader tradition of methodological individualism. Despite focusing on the micro level of policy processes, the contributions in this issue demonstrate that the behavioural study of public policy and administration can go beyond the individual level and give important insights into policy and societal outcomes. Our model enables us to draw more substantial lessons from behavioural research by moving beyond the verification of individual behaviour change. If based on a broad conceptual design and methodological pluralism, behavioural policies bear the potential to better understand, investigate and shape social outcomes.

To consent, or not to consent? The publicness effect on citizens’ willingness to grant access to personal data in the face of a health crisis

“…For example, recent work in behavioral governance analyzing citizens' perceptions of policy nudges regarding health, the environment, and public safety showed that trust in public institutions increased when 'citizens are invited to participate, to make active choices, and to give feedback to planned interventions' (Sunstein et al, 2019(Sunstein et al, , p. 1437. Thus, our work may contribute to behavioral public administration (Battaglio et al, 2019;Grimmelikhuijsen et al, 2017; and behavioral public policy (Ewert et al, 2020;Oliver, 2015Oliver, , 2017Sanders et al, 2018) by suggesting the presence of a pro-public sector bias when normative outcomes are considered.…”

“…In conclusion, being set during a global pandemic that requires a comparative and multi-level governance response, our work may help the integration and cross-fertilization of behavioral insights (Battaglio et al, 2019;Ewert et al, 2020;Grimmelikhuijsen et al, 2017;Oliver, 2015Oliver, , 2017 into mainstream public policy scholarship. Sector type and duration of use are important considerations in assessing citizens' readiness to grant access to personal information, especially given the global efforts to employ private sector research and development to combat an unprecedented public health emergency (e.g., Mazzucato & Kattel, 2020).…”

“…(2) Are they more likely to lift their privacy rights in the face of a public health crisis for a limited rather than an unlimited time? We focus our inquiry on 'the micro-level perspective of individual behavior and attitudes' (Grimmelikhuijsen et al, 2017, p. 1), by building on a rapidly-growing body of research that combines the use of experimental methodologies with insights from psychology to tackle fundamental public administration and policy issues (e.g., Battaglio et al, 2019;Ewert et al, 2020). Our study aims at contributing to a nascent behavioral governance scholarship by shedding light on decision processes that involve policymakers, who are ultimately responsible for the formulation and adoption of pandemic response strategies, public and private entities that are involved in the implementation of those strategies, and the citizens targeted by contact tracing and other interventions that require lifting their privacy rights.…”

Educating Managers and Future Managers in Sustainability: Experiences from the Fishpond Experiment at the Berner Fachhochschule

“…What modern managers may now acutely need to be trained for is the shift from (moral) values to preferences, both for individuals and communities, with the aim to facilitate behavioural change and long-term commitment, trust, social acceptance and buy-in of the notion of sustainability and its implications to all aspects of corporate activities, through effective strategies that shall go beyond nudging. This is stated in [20] where it is confirmed the non-lasting nature of nudging which we aim to overcome by means of educating the managers in a hands-on way.…”

Behavioural governance in the policy process: introduction to the special issue

“…policy researchers (Richard Thaler, Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee & Michael Kremer). Although a 'behavioural turn' inspired by behavioural economics and psychology has been observed both in public policy and in public administration, the subfields of 'behavioural public policy' (BPP) and 'behavioural public administration' (BPA) rarely speak directly to each other (Ewert et al, 2021) and remain somewhat separated from more mainstream approaches to public policy. In this introduction and across the Special Issue we seek to remedy this, drawing together concepts from BPP and BPA to develop the concept of 'behavioural governance'.…”