ABSTRACT
To economic and policy analysts, whether a project provides a gain or reduces or eliminates a loss should be totally irrelevant, and therefore analysts should have no preference for either project as they cost the same and provide identical savings of time and costs to equal numbers of travellers. The insights from behavioural economic findings can be applied to an extremely wide range of subject areas and problems – essentially to all of economics, decision making and policy analysis, including environmental concerns. In response to a request to use behavioural economics findings to modify the information and pension contribution choice format used by a particular company, Richard Thaler and Shlomol Benartzi first noted multiple aspects of current procedures that actively discouraged employees from contributing more to their retirement savings. The standard model of behaviour used in most analyses of issues also suggests that people seek to maximize their personal welfare, with little regard for others outside of their immediate household.
