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The Nudge Unit

Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein's book Nudge (see yesterday's post) has had a substantial impact on the current British government.  Apparently, the entire cabinet was given it as a summer reading assignment. The idea behind Nudge is that public policy should nudge people to make socially-optimal decisions by thinking cleverly about the choice architecture facing citizens. The UK government now has a Behavioural Insights Team (or Nudge Unit) which apply the insights from behavioural economics to public policy in the UK. Their blog is available here and a recent critique of the unit is here.  




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