Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2097: Behavioural Public Policy and the Nudge Agenda

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover the following topics:

- What is Behavioural Public Policy?

- Bounded Rationality; The Automatic and the Reflective System

- Nudge & Libertarian Paternalism

- Key Insights from Behavioural Economics: Behavioural Biases and Heuristics in Decision-Making

- Social psychological insights

- Nudge techniques; Nudge and the wider Government Toolkit

- Nudging Citizens, Nudging Politicians and Bureaucrats

Throughout the module we discuss a variety of policy applications as outlined below, linking these to the underlying theory from behavioural economics and social psychology, and reviewing the empirical evidence of their effects:

- Health & Lifestyle

- Pro-Environmental Behaviours

- Payment of taxes

- Savings and financial behaviour

- Civic behaviour/ voting

In the last part of the module, we consider ethical and normative questions surrounding the use of behavioural public policy, evaluate the merits or otherwise of this approach and discuss how behavioural policy techniques can be complementary to others.

- Ethical issues surrounding behavioural public policy

- The Politics of Libertarian Paternalism

- Combining Nudge with Regulation – ‘Budge’

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	128	0

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	22	11 x 2 hour Seminars a mix of formal lectures, class and small group discussions, non-assessed presentation of group task/s
Guided Independent Study	50	Reading and seminar preparation including take home summary sheets
Guided Independent Study	25	Preparation for research protocol
Guided independent study	25	Preparation for essay
Guided independent study	28	Preparation for non-assessed group task/s mix of individual and group preparation

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Ariely, D. 2008. Predictably irrational: the hidden forces that shape our decisions. London, Harper Collins.

Conly, S. 2013. Against Autonomy: Justifying Coercive Paternalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

John, P. et al. 2011. Nudge, Nudge, Think, Think: Experimenting with Ways to Change Civic Behaviour. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

John, P. 2018. How Far to Nudge: Assessing Behavioural Public Policy, Edward Elgar.

Kahneman, D. 2013. Thinking, Fast and Slow Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

Oliver, A. 2017. The origins of behavioural public policy. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Oliver, A. 2013. Ed. Behavioural Public Policy. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

Shafir, E (Ed). 2012. The Behavioural Foundations of Public Policy. Princetown University Press.

Sunstein, C. 2016. The Ethics of Influence: Government in the Age of Behavioral Science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Sunstein, C. 2015. Why Nudge? The Politics of Libertarian Paternalism. Yale University Press.

Sunstein, C. 2015. Choosing Not to Choose: Understanding the Value of Choice. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Thaler, R. and C. Sunstein. 2008. Nudge: Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven, Yale University Press.

Thaler, R. 2015. Misbehaving: the Making of Behavioural Economics. London: Allen Lane.