Debiasing policymakers

The role of behavioral economics training

Abstract

Behavioral biases often lead to suboptimal decisions, a vulnerability that extends to policymakers who operate under conditions of fatigue, stress, and time constraints—-environments ripe for such biases and with significant implications for public welfare. While behavioral economics offers strategies like default adjustments to mitigate decision-making costs, the scope for policy intervention is not always flexible. Thus, enhancing the quality of policymaking is crucial. Evidence suggests that targeted training can boost job performance among policymakers. This study evaluates the impact of a behavioral training course on policy decision-making through a randomized experiment and a comprehensive survey, incorporating problem-solving and decision-making tasks among approximately 25,000 participants enrolled in the course. Our findings reveal a significant improvement in the treated group, with responses averaging 0.6 standard deviations better than those in the control group. This paper underscores the potential of behavioral training in refining policy decisions and advocates for further research through additional experimental studies, given the increasing prevalence of such courses.