All you need to know on the Endowment Effect

We recently mentioned in our Rational Roundup the Nobel Prize won by Prof. Richard Thaler. One of Richard Thaler’s key contributions to behavioral economics – and a reason for an increasing awareness of the latter as a field of research from the early 1980s onwards – is his work on what he labeled the endowment…

Nudge News: Rational Decision-Making in the Era of Social Bots

(Reading time: 3 min read)

With discussions centered around the recent US presidential election or UK’s Brexit and with several upcoming national elections in Europe (the Netherlands and France in spring, followed by Germany later this year), the topic of social media influence on traditional media, politicians, and voters through the instrument of social bots has been continuously on the rise.

“Nudged” by Government? Maybe!

(Reading time: 4 min read)

How governmental nudge units influence citizens’ decision-making through the design of policy choice architecture

On top of what is done in the commercial domain, there has been an increasing focus on building these nudges into the public sector and into public policy making. Based on the idea that people often take decisions which are contrary to what is in their best interest, a government can hence give its citizens a nudge in the right direction by presenting the available choices in a different manner.