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How far to nudge? Assessing behavioural public policy

Peter John’s How Far to Nudge? delivers a timely assessment of the progress and promise of behavioural economics (BE) as the initial burst of general enthusiasm gives way to a more reflective evaluation. The book provides a comprehensive primer to the uninitiated – John has the ability to convey complex ideas and concepts with great ease and simplicity – but also offers the informed academic or experienced policy practitioner with some interesting insights and ideas on the future direction of behavioural public policy. In the first seven chapters, John assesses the development of the area. Chapter 1 provides a summary of the scope of the book. Chapter 2, ‘Behavioural Public Problems’, comprehensively describes the areas that cover behavioural policy; for example, our resistance to behaviours that we know are beneficial; habits – the behaviours that we barely recognise; our reactance to authority; and collective behaviours. This chapter finishes with an interesting discussion on the impact of poverty and blame attribution. John, in an example of his clear style, tells us that human behaviour, as a crucial aspect of achieving desired policy outcomes, should be more than a truism. The behavioural argument has to ‘take the causal form that certain behavioural traits and biases detrimentally affect the policy outcomes in ways that are systematic, knowable and fixable’. Chapters 3, 4 and 5 provide an easily digestible summary of the development of inquiry into human behaviour. Chapter 3 outlines the reasons for the pre-eminence of the rational choice model and subsequent criticisms of the model. John then gives us a solid history of BE up to the publication of the Nudge book that brought BE into the public consciousness. He outlines ‘nudge’ in Chapter 4. Chapter 5