Nudging and behavioral regulation gaining interest across Europe

Behavioral regulation is afoot in Europe and is drawing the interest of a growing number of OECD countries. Professor Alberto Alemanno has just posted a brief overview of what happened over the last few months:

In late June, TEN – The European Nudge Network was launched with the aim to gather and exchange good practices among researchers, practitioners, stakeholders and policy-makers interested in Nudge throughout the European Union and beyond.

The European Union is in the process to set up its “foresight team”, a unit to be located within the EU Commission Joint Research Center under the lead of the best policy thinkers inside the administration. The unit’s reason d’être is to centralize the efforts currently undertaken by some Directorates General of the EU Commission, such as DG Consumer Protection and Health (SANCO), to integrate behavioral insights into EU policymaking.

Also the OECD is set to include “behavioral economics” in its 2015 Regulatory Policy Outlook.

Alemanno goes on to cite examples from individual countries such as Germany, France, Italy and Canada.