Behavioural insights for public policy

Want to learn more about behavioural economics and its application to public policy? Take this free course. You will dive into the world of behavioural economics by exploring the basics, how these ideas can be applied in a government context, as well as an introduction to designing and evaluating behavioural insights interventions. There’s six learning modules, each with interactive quizzes to measure understanding, and a test with certificate at the end. This course takes approximately about two hours in total – but you can save your progress and do it at your own pace.

Modules:

1. Introduction
   - Explains what behavioural economics is, its benefits and broad ethical considerations in application
2. We make choices in a busy world
   - Discusses cognitive limits, decision fatigue and their impacts on decision-making
3. We value things differently
   - Explores loss aversion, mental accounting and their impacts on decision-making
4. We are social
   - Lists common ways in which we are social, including social norms, altruism and the messenger effect
5. We live in the present
   - Examine ways in which timing affects decision making
6. We want to test what works
   - Discuss the process for identifying and defining a behavioural problem and how to design, apply and evaluate behavioural interventions

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Comment from our editors:

If you don't know anything about behavioural economics - take this course! It goes through the fundamental concepts of this field. Case studies and comprehensive and clear examples are also provided to help you understand the concepts and try and apply them in real life at work/school. The course is evidence-based and it also refers to resources such as articles, studies and online tools for you to look deeper into the topic.