Behavioural economics of lockdown compliance: in search of lost time and well-behaved neighbours

There are some crucial insights that behavioural economics and surrounding psychological evidence can bring to bear on public policies of a lockdown. Such insights are particularly pertinent to leveraging humans’ ‘predictable irrationality’ in its design. Applying this evidence suggests that, where lockdowns are implemented, it might be better for policymakers to impose more stringent and lengthy restrictions from the outset, and then dialling down, rather than shorter restrictions and extending, even if the ultimate length of time in lockdown is the same. For compliance, over-estimate and reduce rather than under-estimate and repeat.