Reports

Academic publication
12th May 2016

Does the heart rule the head? Economic and emotional incentives for university attendance

Young people from low income families and in rural areas have been shown to be less likely to attend university than their wealthier counterparts, even with the same grades.

Academic publication
23rd Apr 2016

Provision of social norm feedback to high prescribers of antibiotics in general practice: a pragmatic national randomised controlled trial

Unnecessary antibiotic prescribing contributes to antimicrobial resistance.

Academic publication
26th Feb 2016

Nudge: Recent developments in behavioural science and public policy

Dr Michael Hallsworth, Director of BIT North America and Michael Sanders former Head of Research and Evaluations at BIT, discuss the increasing popularity of behavioural science among policymakers and explore the reason for it's rapid ascendancy in the UK political sphere.

Academic publication
1st Feb 2016

Can simple prompts increase bequest giving? Field evidence from a legal call centre

We report the findings of a field study demonstrating the importance of non-pecuniary mechanisms for bequest giving.

Academic publication
20th Oct 2015

Stating Appointment Costs in SMS Reminders Reduces Missed Hospital Appointments: Findings from Two Randomised Controlled Trials

Missed hospital appointments are a major cause of inefficiency worldwide. Healthcare providers are increasingly using Short Message Service reminders to reduce ‘Did Not Attend’ (DNA) rates.

Academic publication
1st Sep 2015

Applying Behavioral Economics in a Health Policy Context

The goal of this chapter is to describe how behavioural economics has been applied to health care sector, beginning with the origins of the Behavioural Insights Team in the United Kingdom, and concluding with the broad public health policy context in both the United Kingdom and across much of the…

Academic publication
3rd Aug 2015

Star Power: Two field experiments investigating the effect of celebrity endorsement on charitable fundraising campaigns

A large literature exists that suggests that people’s decisions across many facets of their life are influenced by other people. We report the results of two field experiments in which we test the influence of a salient but socially remote individual – a celebrity – on the charitable giving decisions…

Academic publication
8th Jul 2015

Targeting voter registration with incentives: A randomized controlled trial of a lottery in a London borough

Does an incentive—in the form of a lottery—increase voter registration, particularly among poorer members of society? In the summer of 2012, two groups of 20,000 randomly selected households from a London Borough were informed that they would be placed into a prize draw if they registered to vote by 28…

Academic publication
19th Jun 2015

Non-Standard Matching in Charitable Giving – null results from two field experiments

Abstract Many charities make use of ‘matches’ on donations made by their supporters as a way of encouraging more and larger donations. The effectiveness of these matches in the field has been tested elsewhere, but it is unclear whether the current ‘standard’ matching formulation is the most effective. In two…

Academic publication
23rd Apr 2015

The use of field experiments to increase tax compliance

Governments have become increasingly interested in the ‘explosion’ of research into taxpayer behaviour. This article briefly reviews two main theories of tax compliance (‘deterrence’ and ‘non-deterrence’), before discussing the recent rapid rise of natural field experiments (NFEs) in this area.