Behavioural Government

Governments around the world are drawing on behavioural insights to improve public policy outcomes: from automatic enrolment for pensions, to better tax compliance, to increasing the supply of organ donation.

But those very same policy makers are also subject to biases that can distort decision making. The Behavioural Insights Team has been studying those biases and what can be done to counter them, in collaboration with Jill Rutter and Julian McCrae of the Institute for Government.

The report was launched with remarks from Alex Chisholm, Permanent Secretary at the Department for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy.

Dr Michael Hallsworth, Director of the Behavioural Insights Team in North America presented the key findings.

Those findings, their relevance to policy making today, and what they mean for the way governments make decisions were discussed by:

• Polly Mackenzie, Director of Policy for the Deputy Prime Minister, 2010–15 and now Director of Demos
• Dr Tony Curzon Price, Economic Advisor to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

This event was chaired by Jill Rutter, Programme Director at the Institute for Government.

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