Publications in: Behavioural Economics

Using Behavioural Economics: Practical Examples – August 2014

Published: 27 August, 2014

A presentation to practitioners at the Copenhagen Summer University. Explores how behavioural insights are being used by policy makers. Examples of behavioural studies used by regulators, and discusses the issues to consider when commissioning and designing experiments. The presentation also provides suggested papers illustrating the use of behavioural approaches and additional applied examples.

Study on the Functioning of the Consumer Credit Market in the EU

Published: 12 June, 2014

Presentation to Eurofinas, Brussels, June 12th, 2014.

Study on the Functioning of the Consumer Credit Markets in the European Union – May 2014

Published: 20 May, 2014

The study assesses the degree to which Consumer Credit Directive (CCD) fulfilled its principal objectives, namely: a) fostering an internal credit market in the EU, with a positive impact, in particular on cross­border competition; and, b) providing a high level of protection of consumers regarding consumer credits. The study focuses on the impact of the […]

Financial Conduct Authority Practical Use of Behavioural Experiments in Financial Regulation – March 2014

Published: 25 March, 2014

The Financial Conduct Authority finds that behavioural experiments have an important role to play in financial regulation, and often provide insights into the ways markets work that may not be possible otherwise. Download the paper on the practical application of behavioural experiments in financial regulation jointly authored by London Economics and the FCA.

General Insurance Add-ons: Experimental Consumer Research Report

Published: 13 March, 2014

Behavioural experiment by London Economics which formed part of the FCA’s Add-on Insurance Market Study. The experiment with 1,500 UK residents tested for common patterns of consumer behaviour that arise due to add-on insurance mechanisms and assessed how insurance add-ons may lead to poor outcomes for consumers in these markets.

Impact of EU Ban on Higher Nicotine E-Cigarettes on Tobacco Smoking

Published: 25 February, 2014

The proposed ban compromises e-cigarettes’ role in supporting smoke cessation and is forecast to lead to 210,000 fewer successful quitters each year across the EU. E-cigarettes’ role in smoke reduction is also affected and a 0.8% increase in tobacco smoking or the equivalent of an extra 9.6 million cigarettes being smoked each day across the […]

Using Behavioural Experiments to Identify Consumer Problems in Markets: Partitioned Pricing Practices

Published: January, 2014

This presentation at the OFT’s Economic Seminar series, considers how behavioural experiments can be used to identify problems consumers can have in markets and details an experiment completed for the OFT on partitioned pricing, the practice of splitting prices into parts. The study identifies that these pricing practices can reduce consumer welfare and lead to […]

Voluntary Food Labelling Schemes Study

Published: January, 2014

This market study for the European Commission included a pan-European behavioural experiment to test consumer willingness to pay for products associated with voluntary food labelling schemes. The study also included a web sweep of voluntary food labelling scheme in Europe, a consumer survey and assessment of schemes performance with the requirements of the 2010 Commission […]

Using Behavioural Experiments to Inform Consumer Policy in Financial Markets

Published: December, 2013

A presentation at the Behavioural Finance Working Group conference, practitioners session on behavioural economics applied to finance markets. This presentation looks at applied policy examples of behavioural experiments relevant to consumer decision making in regard to financial products.

Barriers to Cross-border Health Care: Can Behavioural Insights Help?

Published: September, 2013

Presentation at European Commission conference on Applying Behavioural Insights to Policy-Making 30th September 2013.