Using Psychology To Save You From Yourself

I enjoyed my walk home today listening to NPR’s All Things Considered run a piece explaning the genesis of behavioral economics. You can listen to it here or read the text.

It is wonderful to see the economics profession playing a bit of catch up to some of the other social sciences but I like how the rise of this perspective has opened up a large number of policy questions. We now know that “choice architecture” matters (it is explained in the npr peice). People can be nudged along in a direction where they want to go but won’t get their on their own. Increasing savings is a case in point. What we need to learn more about is how to construct the choices to get to the best outcomes. This part is easier said than done.