In the past ten years, we observe the global spread of behavioural change instruments as new modes of public policy. Behavioural teams and ‘nudging’ networks have been established across countries and at the European Commission in order to facilitate the application of insights from behavioural economics and psychology across different policy areas. The rise of behaviourally informed policies goes along with debates on both state-citizen relations (‘libertarian paternalism’) and alternative measurements of progress (‘subjective well-being’). The aim of the workshop is to cover both, the impact of ‘behavioural governance’ and its normative implications. Based on an international and cross-sectoral perspective, the workshop focuses on key questions that have not been answered yet: What are the mechanisms behind the rise of behavioural economics over the past ten years? How can we describe and explain the diffusion of behavioural change instruments across countries and policy areas? In what ways are behavioural change instruments combined with existing tools of regulation and policy-making? What are the unintended consequences? Moreover: What is the role of organizations and networks (e.g. behavioural insights teams, nudging networks) in this? How is this changing the ‘ecosystem of expertise’ in Europe and beyond? Finally: How does behaviourally informed policy change the relationship between science, politics and the public? The workshop extends the current discussion about the effectiveness of specific applications of behavioural change. Its purpose is to provide the building blocks for a comparative perspective on both, how behavioural approaches are changing public policies and in what ways they influence discourses on state, science, economy and society.

We search for empirically rich, preferably comparative papers focusing but not limiting to the following issues:

(1)  The global rise of behaviourally informed policies and regulations: diffusion, impacts, (side-)effects

(2)  Organizing behavioural expertise: organizations, networks and evidence-based practices

(3)  Humanizing public policy? Behavioural discourses and their impact on state and society

We are preparing the “Research Handbook on Behavioural Change and Public Policy”, to be published by Edward Elgar in 2017 (Handbook of Research on Public Policy Series). We are also organizing the workshop as a first step to develop a more permanent research hub on economic discourses, regulatory knowledge and public policy.


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Dr. Holger Strassheim

Humboldt University Berlin

Department of Social Sciences

Unter den Linden 6 / 10099 Berlin / Germany

Phone: ++49 (0)30 2093-4275 (Fax 4271)

www.researchgate.net/profile/Holger_Strassheim2