According to Robert Dur, Professor of Economics of Incentives and Performance at Erasmus School of Economics, a vast amount of experience has been developed in recent years on how behavioural science can be used in government policy, for example how to persuade people to pay their taxes. ‘The next step is to keep a broad and long-term eye on the situation: some policy interventions only have a short-term effect, or only in special situation. Others have important hidden side effects.’
Nudging, influencing behaviour, has become very popular in a short period of time’, says Dur. ‘The Netherlands is a leader in this field in Europe. Together with the United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany and France we are in the top 5.’
According to Dur, behavioural science influences the way in which government policy is determined. ‘In the past, we would say: we spend half a million and are going to do it in a certain way.’ In the case of right-wing political parties this would mean strict enforcement and in the case of left-wing parties this would mean starting a conversation again and explain it again. ‘Now we go back to the politicians with a clear message about what works or not. This makes it easier to reach a consensus: let’s do what works.’
Robert Dur was one of the speakers on 'Day of Behaviour' (Dag van het Gedrag) organised by BIN NL. The entire article can be downloaded below (in Dutch).
- Professor