Behavioural Policy and Financial Well-Being

Applying behavioural insights in policymaking – designing choice architecture in a way that nudges individuals towards the course of action least likely to cause them harm and most likely to benefit both their own longer-term interests and societal well-being – is gaining increasing attention. According to the OECD, there are more than a hundred so-called nudge units working for governments and municipalities around the world. In total, in various forms and sectors, there are more than 300 nudge units operating globally, applying behavioural insights to topics such as reducing inequality, healthier diets, environmental sustainability, educational attainment, tax compliance, and retirement choices. Despite the groundswell of interest in behavioural insights in research and policy, there is still an abundance of research to be conducted for developing and testing the behavioural policy tools in various contexts and for various societal problems, and for further analysis of the ethical principles of behavioural policy. Another topic rapidly gaining attention from both policy and research is financial well-being. The ultimate aim of financial education (that is the process of developing financial literacy) is to increase financial well-being and more than 50 countries in the world (incl. Estonia) are implementing National Strategies for Financial Education. Yet there is no agreement on how to define or measure that construct, neither are there evidence-based tools for its improvement, nor even proof that financial education has an effect on financial well-being. 

Head of the research field: Leonore Riitsalu

Affiliated staff: Kristjan Pulk, Pirjo Turk

Affiliated projects

Human-centred approach for increasing financial well-being of individuals and societies