We are pleased to announce that the next HEPL seminar will be held on 15 May 2024, and presented by Prof Joan Costa-Font (Joan Costa-Font (he/him)🌏) on spillovers effects of policy decision across countries. Register here:
eventbrite.co.uk/e/pandemic-fed…

How can behavioral science contribute to better preparedness for future pandemics? Behavioural Economics and Policy for Pandemics tackles this issue with contributions from Team Scientists George Loewenstein, Silvia Saccardo, & Hengchen Dai. Preorder: bit.ly/4d0cvp6

Amazing ⁦Soumaya Keynes⁩ in this ⁦Financial Times⁩ piece! 👉 “I am asking for titles that reveal the question or the result. Too many have the format “thing, thing and thing”. Unless one of those things is “sex”, “drugs” or “rock ‘n’ roll”, try again.” 🙌
ft.com/content/0f4586…

Great points on freedom by Joseph E. Stiglitz freedom cannot be the excuse to weaken the weakest: “Freedom for the wolves has often meant death to the sheep.” (Isaiah Berlin) '‘Freedom for the gun owners has often meant death to schoolchildren and adults killed in mass shootings.’

The Double Dividend of Nudges - superb, brilliant, important paper, producing an insight that has long been awaiting explicit treatment and empirical support. Andreas Grunewald ⛵ Steffen Altmann Richard H Thaler 𝐒𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐡𝐢𝐥 𝐌𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐧 Katy Milkman Natasha Sarin
rationality-and-competition.de/wp-content/upl…

Also available in English via El País English Edition here.
english.elpais.com/economy-and-bu…

Marketing cancer drugs to physicians increases prescribing without improving mortality, from @citizeness, Michael Daly, and Jing Li 李婧 nber.org/papers/w32336

New field experiment:

When people could earn a reward each time they went to the gym *with a friend*, this led to 35% more frequent gym visits than those who could earn the same reward for each visit as an individual (standard incentive).
pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.128…

Thanks to all participants to the Workshop on Decentralization in Healthcare that we have organized together with Institut d'Estudis de l'Autogovern I learned a lot from the evidence presented for several European Countries!! And the beautiful Palau Centelles is an unbeatable venue!! IEB

A pleasure to host the dinner before the workshop tomorrow on “Decentralization in healthcare systems”! We will have an overview from the OECD followed by evidence on specific country experiences: UK, Norway, Spain, Italy and The Netherlands!! IEB Institut d'Estudis de l'Autogovern

Are immigrants more innovative?

Yup.

Immigrants tend to 1.) make up a higher share of business owners and 2.) operate more innovative and productive firms.

This 'implies [immigrants make] large contributions to U.S. innovation and growth.'

osf.io/preprints/soca…

An interesting study that shows that 'social values diverge globally but converge regionally' 'values emphasizing tolerance and self-expression have diverged most sharply, especially between high-income Western countries and the rest of the world'

Job advert! LSE Fellow in Health Policy

Deadline: 06 May 2024

jobs.lse.ac.uk/Vacancies/W/73…

How many people go to church weekly?

Surveys say it's about 1 in 5 Americans.

Cell phone tracker data say it's actually closer to 1 in 20 Americans.

Fascinating new working paper!

nber.org/papers/w32334

LSE academics Matteo M Galizzi & Joan Costa-Font (he/him)🌏 have co-edited a new book on what #COVID19 taught us about behavioural economics and policy.

Review from Cass Sunstein, Professor Harvard Law School: 'It's the best 'lessons learned' book out there.'

cambridge.org/gb/universityp…

Yes, book w Joan Costa-Font (he/him)🌏 is out! Great chapters by George Loewenstein Mario Macis Silvia Saccardo Hengchen Dai Giuseppe Alessandro Veltri Dr. Janina Steinert Liam Delaney Adam Oliver Henrike Sternberg Dr. Sanchayan Banerjee +. Thanks Cass Sunstein & Erik Wengström for kind reviews! bit.ly/49wXZCl

Next week I will be joining judit vall castello 🇺🇦 and Joan Costa-Font (he/him)🌏 among others at this workshop to discuss the impact of decentralisations and reorganisations. #healtheconomics

👇 new article, 'Money as Medicine' by Eric Reinhart in the NEJM — the world's most influential medical journal — is about Universal Basic Income as essential health policy. 80-90% of health outcomes depend on economic determinants. UBI is preventive.

nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

Without access to recent and reliable data, democratic choices are impoverished. India's elections: why data and transparency matter - The Lancet thelancet.com/journals/lance…

I applaud that editor. I believe there is a bias in editorial decisions in econ journals in favor of papers that “look hard” to produce. Degree of difficulty should be used to judge gymnastics and figure skating, not scientific contributions.