This course aims at providing a hands-on introduction to evidence-based regulation and public policy. The course will be heavily discussion- and participation-based, and will be organized in three modules: fundamentals of behavioral insights; nudging and experimental tools; applications to specific topics. At the end of this course students will have earned an understanding of what behavioral sciences and behavioral insights are, and how they can, should and should not be applied to public policy. Students will learn theoretical and practical tools during the first part of the course and they will then be asked to put such instruments to use in designing a public policy and ways to gather evidence validating it. Project work will target a specific issue chosen from the macro-areas discussed in the weeks preceeding students' presentations: students will provide a hypothesis of policy recommendation based on behavioral insights and will provide an experimental design intended to validate the hypothesis put forth in the project.

Students will learn about the application of behavioral insights drawn from an array of disciplines to the design, implementation and enforcement of public policies. By the end of the course, students will have acquired innovative tools for public policy design to enrich their abilities to better understand, analyze and involve themselves in policy design.

• In the first module we will review behavioral notions and insights relevant for public policy design. In particular we will review the notion of bounded rationality and its relevance for public policy, i.e. how policy makers can use boundedly rational (biased) judgment and decision making to nudge citizens towards better choices, and how to cognitively empower citizens to overcome bias. • In the second module we will look at the main instruments for evidence-based public policy: experiments and policy tools based on behavioral insights and useful to promote behavior change through evidence-driven public policy. Students will learn how to design and run experiments, in order to create evidence validating and justifying the use of behavioral insights in public policy design. • In the third module, students will delve into a specific topic and build a project around it. Macro-areas from which topic will be chosen include some or all of: sustainability, consumer protection, privacy, financial literacy, behavioral ethics, disclosure and conflict of interest, corporate governance, risk perception and management, public consultation. Students are encouraged to propose relevant topics not included in the above list. By the end of the second module, students will have selected a topic among the ones discussed in class. The topic will be developed into a group project to be presented to the rest of the class class during the third module of the course.

The textbook is Michael Hallsworth and Elspeth Kirkman, Behavioral Insights, MIT Press 2020, pp. 248, which we will read throughout the semester. Instructors also provide a list of suggested readings for interested students.

Enquiry and Discussion Based course

Class Participation, In class and online discussions, Project work presentation, and Final Project.

talk to instructors.