After a three-lecture pilot, the Behavioral Insights in Government (BIG) series will continue in fall with funding from the Herb Kohl Research Competition.
Approximately 25 people from state and local government participated in each lecture during the original series, which concluded April 18 with Jim Guszcza’s presentation Combining Data and Behavioral Science for Smarter Public Sector Decisions at the Madison Public Library. Guszcza is the U.S. chief data scientist for Deloitte Consulting.
La Follette School Director and Professor Don Moynihan launched the BIG series in March 2017 with Justin Sydnor, an associate professor in the Department of Risk and Insurance at the Wisconsin School of Business and the Behavioral Research Insights Through Experiments (BRITE) Lab at UW-Madison.
The BIG series brings to policymakers the practical lessons from behavioral economics and public administration. Behavioral economics, which applies insights from psychology to better understand the roots of human behavior, is starting to influence the practice of public management.
The Herb Kohl Public Service Research Competition supports nonpartisan research by La Follette School faculty members that informs critical public policy and governance debates and advances evidence-based decision-making.