Behavioral public administration denotes the combination of public administration and psychology. It is a very simple idea that has a very long history but has only recently gained popularity in the field of public administration. In many ways, Behavioral Public Administration began as the ‘Ugly Duckling’ by Hans Christian Andersen.

This article is a slightly revised version of a speech given at The 1st International Conference on Behavioral Public Administration, October 2019, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.