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cover art for #22: Behavioural Science and Public Policy  - Dr. Pete Lunn (ESRI)

At The Margin

#22: Behavioural Science and Public Policy - Dr. Pete Lunn (ESRI)

Season 2, Ep. 10

Today I am joined by Pete Lunn of the ESRI to discuss behavioural economics and behavioural science. This is our second episode dealing with behavioural science - I would urge you to check out the earlier conversation with Liam Delaney if you have not done so already. Today’s conversation builds on many of the concepts first discussed with Liam.


Pete and his team at the ESRI are responsible for loads of cool research projects that try to understand how we make decisions. For example, his work deals with the mechanics of how we weigh up the pros and cons of our credit card plan or how we decide who to buy our electricity from. They use insights from economics, psychology and other fields to fully understand the decision-making process. More recently, his team have done some very important work in relation to COVID19 and how we can encourage social distancing. We discuss these topics and much more.


If you'd like to buy a coffee to say thanks, I have set up a Patreon at http://www.patreon.com/IrishEconPod. Thanks a million to the two patrons who signed up last week - it means a lot.

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