The RSA Blog

Has the Department of Health been misusing behavioural economics?

Blog

26 Mar 2012

Atif Shafique

It seems that as soon as Andrew Lansley announced plans to “nudge” the population towards healthier and more socially responsible behaviour, scathing criticisms have been levelled at the alleged naivety – and to some the danger – of his policy backing for voluntary pledges, grounded in nudge theory. The Commons health select committee criticised the Department of Health’s (DH) Public Health Responsibility Deals as ineffective for tackling health and social problems such as smoking, excessive drinking and obesity – warning that they could widen health inequalities; that self-interested companies should not be allowed to set the agenda; and that the government should use legislation if “nudging” fails. The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee similarly questioned the efficacy of using voluntary mechanisms without sufficient regulatory measures to achieve behaviour change. Even internally within government the idea has had little traction; a National Audit Office report last year noted government departments were not consulting the Behavioural Insight Team on issues around alternatives to regulation at the assessment stage. Oliver Letwin even acknowledged that it was “open to question whether any of this would have any effect whatsoever.” The Behavioural Insights Team itself cautioned that “’nudge’ approaches should not be seen as a hard alternative to other policy approaches, but a useful complement or additional tool.”

Oh no, not again

Blog

26 Mar 2012

Matthew Taylor

Marx famously said that history repeats itself; the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. If so, what is the appropriate aphorism as yet another tawdry party funding scandal explodes onto our front pages: Party funding history repeats itself first time as tragedy, second time as farce, twenty fifth time as a badly translated repeat of On the Buses shown on a flickering black and white TV in a mini-cab office in Tajikistan?

If only you could bottle it! Reflections on a year in the Spotlight and the Social Entrepreneurs Network so far…

Blog

23 Mar 2012

The latest event from the Social Entrepreneurs Network (on Wednesday 7th March) drew to a close the first and pilot year of Social Enterprise Spotlight. Hopefully you’ve heard about the network and the Spotlight initiative but if not here’s a brief (or not so brief) history and an update about the future of Spotlight:

Are Coalition ministers the biggest threat to free schools?

Blog

22 Mar 2012

Matthew Taylor

I have to admit to feeling ambivalent about the Government’s free schools policy.  I am all for fresh thinking about schools but think it is the content of teaching and learning, and the relationship between schools and communities which are most important, not who owns and governs.

Is freedom fleeting?

Blog

22 Mar 2012

Apologies (once again) for not posting in a while. Apart from being absurdly busy with lots of exciting developments here at the RSA, I’ve also been using up my limited reserves of intellectual energy writing an article for the next RSA Journal which is out at the end of the month.

What do financial bubbles and the human mind have in common?

Blog

21 Mar 2012

Before I studied psychology, I also had a chance of working for an investment bank. One thing that the two areas have in common is inherent instability of the ‘systems’ that they deal with: financial markets and the mind. George Soros claims that this insight into workings of markets allowed him to become a billionaire. He calls it reflexivity. Luckily, unlike with markets, there is a practical solution how to deal with this conundrum of the mind.

Governing for the long term?

Blog

20 Mar 2012

Matthew Taylor

Fairly regularly I receive interview requests from researchers who misguidedly think I have memories, views or ideas which can inform their work. It’s nice to feel needed so I try to be helpful, although I have started to draw the line at undergraduate or Masters dissertations about New Labour.  Sometimes my altruism is rewarded by learning from my interlocutors. So it was this morning when two nice chaps from the Institute for Government came to visit.

Leicester means more

Blog

15 Mar 2012

Matthew Taylor

The message of today’s post is that we shouldn't always assume a fit between a type of problem and a type of solution.

Not up to the job

Blog

14 Mar 2012

Matthew Taylor

Today’s figures suggest we might be approaching the point at which the current cycle of rising unemployment peaks. But this shouldn’t distract from the massive national and international jobs crisis. The 2.67 million people officially unemployed are only half the problem. If the number who would like a job but aren’t registered unemployed and the number who are working part time when they would like to be full time is added the figure is probably closer to seven million.