Behavioral economics is now firmly established as an essential tool in everything from product design and marketing to education and law enforcement. The realization that people have cognitive biases and often make decisions irrationally is not only an important psychological insight. It has also opened up a whole new area of policy innovations over the last 15 years in which low-cost behavioral interventions, or “nudges,” play a critical role in commerce and steer people towards more savings, greater safety, and better health.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has been responsible for critical innovations in the application of behavioral economics to Latin America and the Caribbean. It has helped policymakers design interventions that have boosted road safety, increased taxation, and lifted vaccinations rates, among numerous other areas where the relatively new field has improved lives.
Since 2020, the IDB has offered a course with a free, self-paced, and interactive curriculum that teaches basic behavioral economics principles to those new to the field, gives experienced practitioners ideas for applying their work, and provides instructors with materials they can share with their students. The course is not strictly theoretical, however. Included in its four modules are real-life cases in which students apply learned concepts and study implemented interventions and their consequences.
To date, more than 6,400 people have taken our course, which is available in Spanish, English, and Portuguese. We invite you to join the latest version of the course and deepen your understanding of behavioral economics and your ability to use it for socially productive ends. Registration for the course in Spanish or English must be done before March 26, and before August 27 if you wish to do it in Portuguese. We look forward to seeing you!
