Executive education online: Behavioural economics of policy design: the why and how of Nudge

What if you could help people make good life decisions through a little ‘nudge’? As policymakers, encouraging people to make the right choices about their health, wealth and overall well-being can be challenging. In this course, you will learn about the cognitive biases we all bring to decisions and how you can use ‘nudge’ theory in policy design to make better choices, as well as behavioural economics and its approach to policy evaluation.

This course will explain why the theory behind ‘Nudging’ - behavioural economics - provides a new way to look at public policy questions. It will also explain how the approach is and has been used in the public service and what opportunities there are for you to use them in your policy-making and evaluation.

We also examine the behavioural economics approach to policy evaluation. Which methods work best in a policy environment? What are the differences between randomised controlled trials and natural experiments? How can you use existing administrative data to evaluate policy?

Key topics include:

• Cognitive biases and behavioural economics: What has changed for public policy design.
• Your challenge: Is behavioural economics the right tool? How to design and evaluate an intervention.
• Methods of behavioural economics: the experimental approach. 
• Implications for public policy: the rise of experimental government and the risks and limitations of behavioural economics.

At a glance

Format: Online

Duration: 3 weeks (excluding orientation)

Commitment: 2-4 hours per week

Cost: $1,495 (or $1,195 for early bird registrations by 13 May)

Start/end date: 13 - 24 June 2025 with a course orientation / meet and greet on 10 June

Group discounts available.

Course curriculum

• Module 1 Introduction
• Module 2 Why behavioural economics? Cognitive biases and Nudge
• Module 3 How to apply behavioural economics and EAST - Easy: The UK Behavioural Insights Team approach and your challenge
• Module 4 EAST - Attractive, Social and Timely: The UK Behavioural Insights Team approach and your challenge
• Module 5 An overview of the methods of behavioural economics: A short introduction and break-outs revisiting your challenges

Learning outcomes

• Understanding of how Behavioural Economics can help in policy development and policy evaluation - where is it different (new), what can it achieve.
• Introduction to the EAST approach - development of basic knowledge to develop a Behavioural Economic intervention for the workplace.
• Basic understanding of the limitations of the approach.

Who is this course for?

• APS, Not-for-profit and Private sector
• No prerequisites required. General experience with public policy is useful, as would be a formal education in economics, law or psychology, but experience in the sector and a policy issue that participants want to tackle are all that is necessary.

Session schedule

This course will run as an online and distance program in 2025. It is scheduled to run across three weeks, from 13 - 24 June 2025 with a course orientation / meet and greet on 10 June. Specific dates and times to note in your diary are as follows:

• 10:00am-11:00am Tuesday 10 June 2025 – Meet and greet/Live session 1
• 10:00am-11:00am Friday 13 June 2025 – Live session 2
• 10:00am-11:30am Tuesday 17 June 2025 – Live session 3
• 10:00am-11:30am Friday 20 June 2025 – Live session 4
• 10:00am-11:30am Tuesday 24 June 2025 – Live session 5

• Note: Dates and times are in Canberra time (AEST/GMT+10). The calendar invite for each session should automatically adjust to your timezone when you add it to your calendar. You can check at a site like this to be sure.