1426679 file datta mullainathan behavioral design

For researchers, this focus on impact at scale means privileging projects that build on
existing government or large-scale non-profit programs rather than collaborations with
small, boutique NGOs or service providers. It also means being willing to evaluate an
intervention that may not necessarily isolate the causal effect of a single psychology or
pathway, but of a suite of linked design innovations. And it means paying close attention to
the administrative burden or logistical requirements of any proposed solution, because these
affect whether a solution can be scaled up.
Finally, this means that governments need to be open to involving behavioral experts when
programs are first designed as well as to experimenting on existing programs. As important
is openness to exploring new (and sometimes surprising) pathways to impact that emerge in
the course of the detailed problem and behavioral analysis.
Embedding innovation into the design process itself leads to designs that have a greater
chance of success than if we proceeded to testing the first feasible and reasonable set of
ideas about how to solve a problem. Over time, a rigorous application of the approach to
program design outlined in this paper should lead to more effective, cheaper and more easily
replicable innovations. As we have seen, many policy problems can be traced in the ultimate
analysis to gaps between intentions and actions. A systematic application of behavioral
design should help close another, equally important gap: that between what policy seeks to
achieve and what it accomplishes.
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