If you are reading this blog, you are most likely a person with limited rationality. If you doubt that, ask yourself, if you have ever over-snoozed your morning alarm or eaten beyond your point of hunger? Humans, as it turns out, often fail to act in their best self-interest. We fail to follow through on intended goals and undervalue, or discount, the importance of the future. … [Read more...] about What Behavioral Economics Can Do for the G20
Behavioral Economics
Behavioral Economics: Making Our Roads Safer
While plane crashes get the most media attention, we are much more likely to be injured in or by a car. And, in Latin America, the cost is very high. During 2017, car accidents claimed an average of 12 people per 100,000 inhabitants, five times the rate in Norway, more than double the rate in France, and even higher than that in the United States where road safety has been a … [Read more...] about Behavioral Economics: Making Our Roads Safer
New Research Opportunities at the IDB for Behavioral Economists
The IDB invites researchers with a keen intellectual interest in behavioral interventions to apply for visiting positions with its recently established IDB Working Group on Behavioral Economics. As the leading multilateral institution for Latin America and the Caribbean, the IDB is looking to build on its experience helping governments use behavioral economics tools to improve … [Read more...] about New Research Opportunities at the IDB for Behavioral Economists
Nudging Latin Americans to Healthier, More Prosperous Lives
The year 2017 may be the year behavioral economics found its place in the sun. Fifteen years after behavioral economics pioneer Daniel Kahneman won his Nobel Prize, its principles have been transformed into key policy tools in government, business, and development agencies. The 2017 Nobel Prize to Richard Thaler, one of its principle theoreticians and practitioners, only … [Read more...] about Nudging Latin Americans to Healthier, More Prosperous Lives
Behavioral Economics and the Messaging That Works
"Nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes," said the United States' Benjamin Franklin. And few things are less pleasurably anticipated. But at least when it comes to taxes, the avoidance can make running a government especially hard. Behavioral economics, with its psychological insights into how information can be used to change citizens’ beliefs and … [Read more...] about Behavioral Economics and the Messaging That Works