Beyond nudge: advancing the state-of-the-art of behavioural public policy and administration
This Special Issue features theoretical, methodological, and empirical advancements of the state-of-the-art in behavioural public policy and administration. In this introduction, we develop a behaviourally-informed, integrated conceptual model of the policy process that embeds individual attitudes and behaviour into context at the meso and macro level. We argue that behavioural approaches can be situated within a broader tradition of methodological individualism. Despite focusing on the micro level of policy processes, the contributions in this issue demonstrate that the behavioural study of public policy and administration can go beyond the individual level and give important insights into policy and societal outcomes. Our model enables us to draw more substantial lessons from behavioural research by moving beyond the verification of individual behaviour change. If based on a broad conceptual design and methodological pluralism, behavioural policies bear the potential to better understand, investigate and shape social outcomes.
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Ball, S. and Head, B.W. (2020) Behavioural insights teams in practice: nudge missions and methods on trial, Policy & Politics, in this themed issue, doi: https://doi.org/10.1332/030557320X15840777045205.
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Banerjee, S. and John, P. (2020) Nudge Plus: Incorporating Reflection into Behavioural Public Policy, Working Paper, http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/103277/
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Battaglio Jr., R.P., Belardinelli, P., Bellé, N. and Cantarelli, P. (2019) Behavioral public administration ad fontes: a synthesis of research on bounded rationality, cognitive biases, and nudging in public organizations’, Public Administration Review, 79(3): 304–20.
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Bhanot, S.P. and Linos, E. (2020) Behavioral public administration: past, present, and future, Public Administration Review, 80(1): 168–71.
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Brennan, J. (2016) Against Democracy, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
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Christensen, J., Aarøe, L., Baekgaard, M., Herd, P. and Moynihan, D. (2020) Human capital and administrative burden: the role of cognitive resources in citizen‐state interactions, Public Administration Review, 80(1): 127–36.
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Cotterill, S., John, P. and Johnston, M. (2020) How better reporting standards could advance behavioural public policy: useful tools for reporting interventions and evaluations, Policy & Politics, in this themed issue. doi: https://doi.org/10.1332/030557320X15955052119363.
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Delaney, L. (2018) Behavioural insights team: ethical, professional and historical considerations, Behavioural Public Policy, 2(2): 183–89.
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Dudley, S.E. and Xie, Z. (2020) Designing a choice architecture for regulators, Public Administration Review, 80(1): 151–56.
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Entwistle, T. (2020) Why nudge sometimes fails: fatalism and the problem of behaviour change, Policy & Politics, in this themed issue. doi: https://doi.org/10.1332/030557320X15832072208458.
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Ewert, B. (2020) Moving beyond the obsession to nudge individual behaviour: towards a broader understanding of behavioural public policy, Public Policy and Administration, 35(3): 337–60, doi: 10.1177/0952076719889090.
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Ewert, B. and Loer, K. (2020) Advancing behavioural public policies: in pursuit of a more comprehensive concept, Policy & Politics, 00(00): 1–23, in this themed issue, doi: 10.1332/030557320X15907721287475.
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Feitsma, J. and Whitehead, M. (2019) Bounded interdisciplinarity: critical interdisciplinary perspectives on context and evidence in behavioural public policies, Behavioural Public Policy, 1–27, doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2019.30.
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Grimmelikhuijsen, S., Jilke, S., Olsen, A.L. and Tummers, L. (2017) Behavioral public administration: combining insights from public administration and psychology, Public Administration Review, 77(1): 45–56.
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Lee, D.S. and Park, S. (2020) What motivates street-level bureaucrats to implement the reforms of elected politicians?, Policy & Politics, in this themed issue. doi: https://doi.org/10.1332/030557320X15955052478653
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Mols, F., Haslam, S.A., Jetten, J. and Steffens, N.K. (2015) Why a nudge is not enough: a social identity critique of governance by stealth, European Journal of Political Research, 54(1): 81–98.
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Moseley, A. and Thomann, E. (2020) A behavioural model of heuristics and biases in frontline policy implementation, Policy & Politics, in this themed issue.
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Nagtegaal, R., Tummers, L., Noordegraaf, M. and Bekkers, V. (2019) Nudging healthcare professionals towards evidence-based medicine: a systematic scoping review, Journal of Behavioral Public Administration, 2(2): 1–20.
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