Nudges, shoves and budges: behavioural economic policy frameworks

Behavioural economics – the study of human decision making and how it sometimes deviates systematically from the assumptions of standard economic theory – has attracted a lot of attention in the health policy discourse over recent years. Many appear to believe that behavioural economic findings can be used only to help inform policies that manipulate the choices made by citizens; i.e. so-called nudge policy. However, these findings can be used to inform several different policy frameworks, from seemingly innocuous liberty-preserving changes to the contexts people operate in, to the outlawing of certain corporate behaviours. This article depicts diagrammatically, with the aid of a ‘behavioural policy cube’ and in relation to smoking cessation interventions, the conceptual parameters of several behavioural economic-informed policy frameworks, which could be easily extended to other areas of health, and indeed broader public, policy.