Behavioural insights and regulatory practice: A review of the international academic literature

Abstract

This research report presents findings from a broad range of international academic literature on the use of insights from the behavioural sciences in regulatory practice—an approach to regulation colloquially known as ‘nudging’. The report is targeted at managers and frontline workers in regulatory organisations and units who are interested in this approach to regulation. The report addresses six themes: (1) the evolution of thinking about rational behaviour, (2) examples of the use of behavioural insights in regulation, (3) evidence of the workings of this approach, (4) experiments and randomised control trials to understand those workings, (5) ethical challenges, and (6) epistemic challenges.