Behavioral Insights for Development : Cases from Central America

Behavioral Insights for Development : Cases from Central America

Behavioral Insights for Development: Cases from Central America brings together a set of experiences that applied behavioral insights to different areas of public policy—in some cases through randomized control trials, and in others using surveys or behavioral games. These experiences collectively s...

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Main Authors: Calvo-González, Oscar, Zoratto, Laura
Format: Book
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2017
Subjects:
BEHAVIORAL INSIGHTS
DEVELOPMENT
TAX COLLECTION
BIASES
WATER CONSUMPTION
BEHAVIOR
POVERTY REDUCTION
PERCEPTIONS
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
SUBSIDIES
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28335
id okr-10986-28335
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-283352021-04-23T14:04:48Z Behavioral Insights for Development : Cases from Central America Calvo-González, Oscar Zoratto, Laura Calvo-González, Oscar Zoratto, Laura BEHAVIORAL INSIGHTS DEVELOPMENT TAX COLLECTION BIASES WATER CONSUMPTION BEHAVIOR POVERTY REDUCTION PERCEPTIONS EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT SUBSIDIES Behavioral Insights for Development: Cases from Central America brings together a set of experiences that applied behavioral insights to different areas of public policy—in some cases through randomized control trials, and in others using surveys or behavioral games. These experiences collectively show the promise of public policies that are informed by a better understanding of what drives individual behavior. In Costa Rica, for example, informing households of how much water they consume relative to their neighbors reduced water consumption (chapter 1). In Guatemala, altering the way government communicates with taxpayers increased revenue collection (chapter 2). In Nicaragua, an analysis of a cash transfer program found that children in households receiving benefits exhibited significantly higher cognitive development—a result influenced by parental behavior changes during the program (chapter 3). In El Salvador, we explore how different biases explain the apparent puzzle of a gas subsidy reform that benefited most of the population yet proved to be widely unpopular (chapter 4). Chapter 5 also uses behavioral insights to analyze subsidy reforms in El Salvador, this time using a different methodology: a set of economic behavioral games designed to evaluate the willingness of individuals to accept subsidy reforms that would affect them directly. Finally, chapter 6 reflects on the progress made in applying behavioral insights in a development context. These cases illustrate, in practice, some of the findings of the World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior. In particular, they demonstrate the possibility of using nontraditional tools, complementary to regulation, in contexts where time and resources are limited. The World Bank has since established a Mind, Behavior, and Development (eMBeD) Unit within the Poverty and Equity Global Practice to mainstream and scale up behavioral science in public policies and programs. We hope these experiences will help to inform other practitioners about the potential of applying behavioral insights in a development context and will encourage them to consider such approaches as a complement to traditional policy measures. 2017-09-13T21:02:43Z 2017-09-13T21:02:43Z 2017-09-13 Book 978-1-4648-1120-3 http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28335 English en_US Directions in Development—Countries and Regions; CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Publication
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic BEHAVIORAL INSIGHTS
DEVELOPMENT
TAX COLLECTION
BIASES
WATER CONSUMPTION
BEHAVIOR
POVERTY REDUCTION
PERCEPTIONS
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
SUBSIDIES
spellingShingle BEHAVIORAL INSIGHTS
DEVELOPMENT
TAX COLLECTION
BIASES
WATER CONSUMPTION
BEHAVIOR
POVERTY REDUCTION
PERCEPTIONS
EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
SUBSIDIES
Calvo-González, Oscar
Zoratto, Laura
Behavioral Insights for Development : Cases from Central America
relation Directions in Development—Countries and Regions;
description Behavioral Insights for Development: Cases from Central America brings together a set of experiences that applied behavioral insights to different areas of public policy—in some cases through randomized control trials, and in others using surveys or behavioral games. These experiences collectively show the promise of public policies that are informed by a better understanding of what drives individual behavior. In Costa Rica, for example, informing households of how much water they consume relative to their neighbors reduced water consumption (chapter 1). In Guatemala, altering the way government communicates with taxpayers increased revenue collection (chapter 2). In Nicaragua, an analysis of a cash transfer program found that children in households receiving benefits exhibited significantly higher cognitive development—a result influenced by parental behavior changes during the program (chapter 3). In El Salvador, we explore how different biases explain the apparent puzzle of a gas subsidy reform that benefited most of the population yet proved to be widely unpopular (chapter 4). Chapter 5 also uses behavioral insights to analyze subsidy reforms in El Salvador, this time using a different methodology: a set of economic behavioral games designed to evaluate the willingness of individuals to accept subsidy reforms that would affect them directly. Finally, chapter 6 reflects on the progress made in applying behavioral insights in a development context. These cases illustrate, in practice, some of the findings of the World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society, and Behavior. In particular, they demonstrate the possibility of using nontraditional tools, complementary to regulation, in contexts where time and resources are limited. The World Bank has since established a Mind, Behavior, and Development (eMBeD) Unit within the Poverty and Equity Global Practice to mainstream and scale up behavioral science in public policies and programs. We hope these experiences will help to inform other practitioners about the potential of applying behavioral insights in a development context and will encourage them to consider such approaches as a complement to traditional policy measures.
author2 Calvo-González, Oscar
author_facet Calvo-González, Oscar
Calvo-González, Oscar
Zoratto, Laura
format Book
author Calvo-González, Oscar
Zoratto, Laura
author_sort Calvo-González, Oscar
title Behavioral Insights for Development : Cases from Central America
title_short Behavioral Insights for Development : Cases from Central America
title_full Behavioral Insights for Development : Cases from Central America
title_fullStr Behavioral Insights for Development : Cases from Central America
title_full_unstemmed Behavioral Insights for Development : Cases from Central America
title_sort behavioral insights for development : cases from central america
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2017
url http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28335
_version_ 1764466641401282560

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