NudgeFollow

On recommendation, I just finished reading Nudge. Needless to say, I thought it was fantastic, being the apathetic Libertarian that I am. It was also interesting as an insight into some of Obama's legistation proposals since one of the authors (Cass Sustein) is now a top Obama advisor.

I'm assuming that several of you wonks have also read it. Impressions? Other suggested reading in a similar vein? Uninformed rants about "Big Brother" government paternalism?

It's a really interesting book, although in fairness there is not much "new" in there. Behavioural change is an old concept, all these guys have done is collected of all the disparate evidence of its efficiency into one place. But still, entertaining and intellectually stimulating.

The current government in the UK is obsessed with Nudge, and it's basically underpinning half of the policies that come out of it.

As for similar reads, "Blink" is pretty good (you only need to read 1/3 of it to "get it"), anything by Malcolm Gladwell (Wisdom of Crowds, for ex), and of course "the Undercover Economist" by Tim Hartford is really cool too. Freakonomics is another obvious one.

I just had the opportunity to read the interview that Amazon had with the authors, and I agree it sounds like old stuff with some new packaging and ideas. I mean, this is what good advertising is all about.

What is a more interesting discussion to me, and one I've had to engage in professionally from time to time is, when do we go to far in 'nudging'?

If we nudge towards one choice we're nudging away from others.

I work for an environmental regulatory agency, we've been called to the carpet a couple times for 'preaching' environmentalism rather than simply enforcing the law.

Historically large scale behavioral change has needed more than a nudge. It usually takes legislation or simply removing the choice you're trying to eliminate. However, with more information getting out to more people - nudging may take on greater meaning.

Send me your copy Demea.

The concept is definitely not new, but this book goes a little further and actually advocates policies based on the underlying ecomonic and psychology theories.

As a random tangent, this is always one of the hardest things that I've found to explain to people when they learn that my degree is in economics. They assume that I mean macroeconomics, i.e. national fiscal and monetary policy, balance of trade, etc. However, the most interesting field of economics nowadays (in my opinion anyways) is behavioral economics, which plays a large chunk (or should, at least) in current policy construction.


I've read The Undercover Economist, as well as a few other of Tim Harford's books, and found then to be quite interesting. Freakonomics and SuperFreakonomics were also pretty neat, although the latter seemed to advocate policies that were intentionally controvertial solely for the sake of publicity (and the resulting book sales).

I've heard good things about Gladwell, so I'll check him out next.

Here's an interview with Pollan about The Omnivores Dilemma. It's a couple years old. He's been on NPR a lot though ---> CLICKY.

Yeah, I'm still a fan. I husband mentioned he's recently heard them on mainstream radio.

Let me know when you read the sequels "Grin" and "Wink".