Better Policies; Better Lives: Using behavioural insights to evaluate and improve policy making

In Policy and Strategy by publicadmin

Duration: 1 week
Dates: 18 to 22 March 2024
Tuition fees: £2,425 (exc. VAT)

About the workshop
Over the last decade the use of behavioural economics and behavioural insights has led to significant improvements in the evaluation and formulation of public policies in a wide range of important areas including, for example:
• Increasing public participation in vaccination and disease prevention programmes such as for COVID-19
• Strengthening public finances through better tax collection procedures
• Creating more jobs through a better understanding of micro-finance systems
• Raising attendance levels and learning standards in primary schools
• Reducing gender bias and child poverty by creating more active roles for women in local government
• Facilitating greater access to clean water in rural communities.

What the workshop will cover
The workshop will include:
• Familiarisation with the concept of behavioural insights and how it has evolved from a combination of behavioural economic concepts, economic experiments, social psychology and intuition
• The use of real-life examples and case studies to demonstrate how behavioural insights are contributing to better policy evaluation and policy formulation across the world
• A review of interventions on energy conservation behaviour, climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies
• An explanation of the techniques used to make good use of behavioural insights, including designing and running randomised control trials and experiments and interpreting the results
• Visits to organisations in the UK to discuss with practitioners how behavioural insights are used to improve policy making in practice.

How participants will benefit
The workshop is designed to give you:
• An understanding of how behavioural insights are becoming increasingly relevant in a fast-changing world
• An introduction to the latest techniques used by leading practitioners in this relatively new area of public administration
• Exposure to what other countries are doing with the use of behavioural insights
• Access to an international network of experts who are leaders in this rapidly evolving area of work
• An opportunity to develop and refine your policy making skills with the aim of making significant improvements in the lives of people directly affected by the policies
• Tools to predict people’s behaviour and to foresee potential unintended consequences of public policies which are aimed at improving the quality of citizens’ lives
• An introduction to the application of behavioural and experimental methods on climate change-related topics.