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Applying Behavioral Sciences in the Service of Four Major Economic Problems

Jason Furman · 1 Oct 2016 · doi.org

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In plain words

Behavioral science keeps inventing tools and then looking for problems they can solve, when it should start with big economic questions and build insights to match. That flip would let behavioral ideas work alongside traditional policy tools on the large-scale problems economic policymakers actually face. It is an argument for reversing the usual order of applying behavioral science to policy, pushing against the current tools-first approach.

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  1. But to date, the integration of behavioral science into public policy has proceeded from developing a set of tools to then searching for problems these tools can help solve.
  2. Behavioral science can play an even more important role in the policymaking process in coming years if practitioners instead begin with some of the large-scale questions that economic policymakers face and then develop insights that, often as a complement to more traditional policy tools, can help solve them.