Behavioural Public Economics : Extended

Behavioural Economics and Public Policy: Lessons for Effective and Efficient Developmental Schemes

Why do we often want things we do not need, and need things we do not want? This paper reviews the very core process of human psyche and the associated biases that make us what we are not: Homo economicus. It also proposes the many ways public policies could be redesigned – based on the recent findings in behavioural economics – in order to change the way people behave in an optimal way so that...

Can behavioural economics make us healthier?

Behavioural economics is becoming increasingly popular as a way to improve public health. George Loewenstein and colleagues point out some of the pitfalls and warn that it cannot be used as a substitute for conventional policies to tackle fundamental problems.

Marginal benefit incidence of public health spending: evidence from Indonesian sub-national data.

We examine the marginal effects of decentralized public health spending by incorporating estimates of behavioural responses to changes in health spending in benefit incidence analysis. The analysis is based on a panel dataset of 207 Indonesian districts over the period from 2001 to 2004. We show that district public health spending is largely driven by central government transfers, with an elas...

Public Participation: Methods Matter; A Response to Boaz et al.

The Effects of Group Composition and Fractionalization in a Public Goods Game An Agent-Based Simulation

Behavioural economics highlights the role of social preferences in economic decisions. Further, populations are heterogeneous; suggesting that group composition may impact the ability to sustain voluntary public goods contributions. This parallels research in public economics where fractionalization negatively impacts provision. We conduct agent-based simulations of contributions in a public go...