Consensus Study Report
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This activity was supported by contracts between the National Academy of Sciences and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (G-2020-12645) and the National Institutes of Health (HHSN263201800029I/75N98021F00015), as well as the National Academy of Sciences W.K. Kellogg Foundation Fund. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of any organization or agency that provided support for the project.
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-69983-9
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-69983-5
Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.17226/26874
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023938915
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Suggested citation: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2023. Behavioral Economics: Policy Impact and Future Directions. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26874.
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COMMITTEE ON FUTURE DIRECTIONS FOR APPLYING BEHAVIORAL ECONOMICS TO POLICY
ALISON M. BUTTENHEIM (Cochair), Department of Family and Community Health, University of Pennsylvania
ROBERT A. MOFFITT* (Cochair), Department of Economics, Johns Hopkins University
STEFANO DELLAVIGNA, Department of Economics, University of California, Berkeley
CATHERINE C. ECKEL, Department of Economics, Texas A&M University
ANGELA FONTES, Fontes Research
JOSHUA S. GRAFF ZIVIN, Department of Economics, University of California, San Diego
RACHEL E. KRANTON,* Department of Economics, Duke University
LEONARD M. LOPOO, Public Administration and International Affairs Department, Syracuse University
ELDAR SHAFIR, Department of Psychology, Princeton University
STACEY SINCLAIR,^ Department of Psychology, Princeton University
JENNIFER S. TRUEBLOOD, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington
PETER A. UBEL,^,** The Fuqua School of Business, Duke University
KEVIN G. VOLPP,** Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
Staff
MOLLY CHECKSFIELD DORRIES, Study Director, Program Officer (until September 2022)
ALEXANDRA S. BEATTY, Study Director, Senior Program Officer (beginning September 2022)
TINA M. WINTERS, Program Officer
J. ASHTON RAY, Senior Program Assistant
__________________
* Member, National Academy of Sciences
^ Resigned, May 2022
** Member, National Academy of Medicine
BOARD ON BEHAVIORAL, COGNITIVE, AND SENSORY SCIENCES
TERRIE E. MOFFITT (Chair),* Duke University
RICHARD N. ASLIN,** Yale University
WILSON S. GEISLER,** University of Texas at Austin
MICHELE GELFAND,** Stanford University
MARA MATHER, University of Southern California
ULRICH MAYR, University of Oregon
KATHERINE L. MILKMAN, University of Pennsylvania
DON OPERARIO, Emory University
ELIZABETH A. PHELPS, Harvard University
DAVID E. POEPPEL, New York University
KARL W. REID, Northeastern University
STACEY SINCLAIR, Princeton University
MO WANG, University of Florida
Staff
DANIEL J. WEISS, Director
__________________
* Member, National Academy of Medicine
** Member, National Academy of Sciences
Reviewers
This Consensus Study Report was reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine in making each published report as sound as possible and to ensure that it meets the institutional standards for quality, objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process.
We thank the following individuals for their review of this report:
Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the conclusions or recommendations of this report nor did they see the final draft before its release. The review of this report was overseen by CHARLES F. MANSKI, Department of Economics, Northwestern University, and ELKE U. WEBER, Departments of Psychology and Public Affairs, Princeton University. They were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with the standards of the National Academies and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content rests entirely with the authoring committee and the National Academies.
Acknowledgments
This report was made possible by support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research, National Institute on Aging, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, NIH Office of Disease Prevention, NIH Office of AIDS Research, and National Academy of Sciences W.K. Kellogg Foundation Fund.
The committee is grateful for the valuable contributions of many individuals to this study. As part of our evidence-gathering process, we commissioned three papers, and we thank the authors for their valuable contributions: Kent D. Messer, Diya Ganguly, and Lusi Xie, all of the University of Delaware, for their paper summarizing work on behavioral economics applications to climate change; Elizabeth Linos, Harvard University, for her paper on issues related to the translation of behavioral economics research into policy; and Andrej Svorenčík, University of Mannheim, and Alexandre Truc, Université Côte d’Azur, for their paper on the history and development of the field.
We also invited a number of other scholars to make presentations and engage with us during a public workshop held in July 2022. We thank the following individuals for their insightful and informative presentations at the public workshop: Saurabh Bhargava, Carnegie Mellon University; Ben Castleman, University of Virginia; Lisa Gennetian, Duke University; Michael Hallsworth, Behavioral Insights Team; Chaning Jang, The Busara
Center for Behavioral Economics; Åsa Löfgren, University of Gothenburg; Aurélie Ouss, University of Pennsylvania; Jolene Pomeroy, Mesa, AZ City Nudge Team; Sally Sadoff, University of California, San Diego; Anisha Singh, The Busara Center for Behavioral Economics; Richard Thaler, University of Chicago; David Yokum, Brown University; and Joe Zhao, Mesa, AZ City Nudge Team.
The committee also appreciates the contributions of the staff members who supported this project, Study Directors (in sequence) Molly Checksfield Dorries and Alix Beatty, Program Officer Tina Winters, and Senior Program Assistant Ashton Ray.
Alison Buttenheim and Robert Moffitt, Cochairs,
Committee on Future Directions for Applying Behavioral Economics to Policy
4 The Behavioral Economics Toolkit: Policy Levers and Intervention Strategies
ADDRESSING LIMITED ATTENTION AND COGNITION
ADDRESSING REFERENCE DEPENDENCE AND FRAMING
ADDRESSING SOCIAL PREFERENCES AND SOCIAL NORMS
PART II: EVIDENCE FROM SELECTED POLICY DOMAINS
STRATEGIES TO REFINE AUTOMATIC ENROLLMENT
POSSIBLE EXPLANATIONS FOR LOW PARTICIPATION
DIFFICULTIES IN APPLYING BEHAVIORAL PRINCIPLES TO CLIMATE GOALS
ACCESS TO POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION
INFLUENCE OF BEHAVIORAL FACTORS
APPLICATION OF BEHAVIORAL IDEAS
11 Findings Across the Policy Domains
PART III: LOOKING TO THE FUTURE
12 Conducting and Disseminating Behavioral Economics Research
13 Implementing Behavioral Economics Approaches
CONNECTING RESEARCH AND PRACTICE
ADOPTING INTERVENTIONS AT A BROAD SCALE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
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Boxes and Tables
BOXES
2-1 Traditional Economics—An Evolving Discipline
2-2 Modeling the Dynamics of Decision Making
3-1 One Traditional Mathematical Economic Model of Decision Making
14-1 Using Behavioral Knowledge to Combat False and Misleading Information
TABLES
4-1 Intervention Strategies Mapped to the Five Foundational Principles
11-1 Overview of Findings on Behavioral Economics from Six Domains
