TY - JOUR

T1 - Is there a behavioral revolution in policy design?

T2 - A new agenda and inventory of the behavioral toolbox

AU - Esmark, Anders

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - The article argues for a revised research on behavioral public policy focused on the core claim and sine qua non of a behavioral “revolution”: the ability to produce equal or better outcomes with less stringent policy designs than in traditional solutions, at least for certain types of problems. Three contributionsto such an agenda are proposed. First, the article argues that the growing focus on the evaluation of real-world behavioral policy programs, as opposed to experimental studies within specialized areas of research, calls for a corresponding theoretical orientation toward existing literature on policy toolsand design. Second, a doctrine of policy design is extrapolated from the broader behavioral paradigm and specifed in relation to four general areas of application. These provide an essential context for the evaluation of the behavioral claim to improved policy design and highlight that behavioral successes may well, contra this claim, be a result of a de facto increase in stringency vis-à-vis traditionalresponses. Third, the article proposes a new and substantially revised inventory of the behavioral toolbox, which specifes the stringency, mechanisms, and potential costs of different behavioral tools and techniques, which is both essential to the evaluation of the behavioral claim and necessary to overcomethe arbitrariness and mistakes of existing inventories.

AB - The article argues for a revised research on behavioral public policy focused on the core claim and sine qua non of a behavioral “revolution”: the ability to produce equal or better outcomes with less stringent policy designs than in traditional solutions, at least for certain types of problems. Three contributionsto such an agenda are proposed. First, the article argues that the growing focus on the evaluation of real-world behavioral policy programs, as opposed to experimental studies within specialized areas of research, calls for a corresponding theoretical orientation toward existing literature on policy toolsand design. Second, a doctrine of policy design is extrapolated from the broader behavioral paradigm and specifed in relation to four general areas of application. These provide an essential context for the evaluation of the behavioral claim to improved policy design and highlight that behavioral successes may well, contra this claim, be a result of a de facto increase in stringency vis-à-vis traditionalresponses. Third, the article proposes a new and substantially revised inventory of the behavioral toolbox, which specifes the stringency, mechanisms, and potential costs of different behavioral tools and techniques, which is both essential to the evaluation of the behavioral claim and necessary to overcomethe arbitrariness and mistakes of existing inventories.

U2 - 10.1093/polsoc/puad028

DO - 10.1093/polsoc/puad028

M3 - Journal article

VL - 42

SP - 441

EP - 453

JO - Policy and Society

JF - Policy and Society

SN - 1449-4035

IS - 4

ER -