By Kate Laffan and Andriy Ivchenko
Practical men who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence are usually the slaves of some defunct economist. – John Maynard Keynes
This quote adorns the walls of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore – fittingly setting the stage for the 2025 International Behavioural Public Policy (BPP) Workshop. Jointly convened by Leong Ching and Adam Oliver, the workshop took place from April 23–24 and brought together a global community of scholars, policymakers, and practitioners. True to form for a BPP gathering, the event was rich with intellectually rigorous and practically grounded discussion. And, for the record, no defunct economists in sight.
The two-day programme featured keynote speeches, thematic panel sessions, and a poster exhibition. Between the scheduled events, attendees had the chance to connect over shared meals and a scenic walk around Marina Bay. Participants represented a wide array of institutions across academia, public policy, and non-governmental sectors.
DAY 1
The workshop opened with an engaging welcome and Q&A session led by Leong Ching, offering a crash course on the unique structure of Singapore’s economy. From the eye-wateringly high cost of real estate in the are where we were based to the wide-scale provision of public housing and the economics of potable tap water, the session provided rich local context and sparked enthusiastic questions from the international attendees.
Following that, Lucia Reisch delivered the opening keynote. She set an ambitious agenda for the future of behavioural science, outlining five promising directions, including Behavioural AI, Behavioural Conservation, Behavioural Macroeconomics, and Behavioural Public Administration. Despite the early hour—or very late, depending on one’s time zone – her expansive vision, grounded in examples from the inroads her own team is making, had the room buzzing.
The first panel session, entitled Foundations and Frontiers in BPP, built directly on the keynote themes. Adam Oliver opened by advocating for greater conceptual clarity in BPP, specifically critiquing vague uses of terms like “nudging.” Faisal Naru followed with reflections on the global expansion of BPP institutions, encouraging a shift in mindset from seeking “silver bullets” to uncovering practical “golden nuggets.”
Avishalom Tor made the case for more careful attention to the costs of behavioural interventions, both psychological and material. Akshaya Balagi stressed the importance of contextually sensitive intervention design, drawing on conditional cash transfer programmes to illustrate her point. Closing the session, Aba Szollosi highlighted how cognitive and motivational alignment within target populations can significantly enhance the effectiveness of interventions.
The second panel on Sustainability and Climate Action focused primarily on how information provision affects behaviour in the environmental space. Tong Liu opened with research demonstrating that communicating the link between air pollution and cognitive performance can encourage protective health behaviours in China. A series of Singapore-based field experiments then took centre stage.
Bing Yang Tan presented evidence that financial and climate-based information did little to shift consumer decisions toward electric vehicle purchases. Zhihao Han followed with a study showing that messages highlighting the co-benefits of electric transport were more effective, leading to increased electric bus usage. Weilun Jun explored how personalised carbon footprint feedback affected students’ transportation decisions, revealing promising behavioural shifts.
Ever the odd one out, somewhere in the middle of panel 2, Kate detailed some ongoing work on misperceptions of the affective responses to sustainable behaviours – so-called affective forecasting errors – and their implications for BPP. She just about touched on information campaigns too!
DAY 2
The second day began with a keynote by Sumit Agarwal, who presented a comprehensive analysis of household water consumption in Singapore. He examined how behavioural nudges, pricing strategies, and infrastructure improvements can influence consumption patterns. The session was a masterclass in how great data (no need for inferences from a sample when you have data on the whole population!) coupled with careful econometric analysis, can produce rich policy insights that have lessons far beyond Singapore.
The third panel session on Education, Public Health, and Artificial Intelligence featured a range of applied research focused on education and technology, particularly in the Indian context. Aditi Bhutori discussed the use of an AI-based learning platform to improve literacy in schoolchildren, showing promising results. Sonal Garg examined how parental and teacher interventions—from lesson plans to take-home materials – can further support literacy development. Pankaj Tewari highlighted the community-driven work of Aarohi, a grassroots organisation in Uttarakhand, India, which implements locally led initiatives for sustainable development.
Concluding the session, Benjamin Chen offered a timely perspective on the public’s perception of algorithmic legal advice in China. His findings indicated that people view AI-generated legal advice as equally reasonable compared to that from human lawyers – a noteworthy insight in an age of growing AI integration across private and public services.
The fourth panel shifted focus to the intersection of labour markets, financial behaviour, and social policy. Sebastian Brown and Kenneth Chan presented research using NY Fed data showing that job seekers tend to update their wage expectations in a systematically biased way, overweighting positive news and underweighting negative signals. David Oliver Kasdan explored the low fertility rates in South Korea, arguing that beyond economic uncertainty, cultural norms, cognitive biases, and societal conditions shape family planning decisions. Monerah Almahmoud shared evidence from a series of randomised trials in Saudi Arabia, demonstrating that leveraging descriptive social norms can increase engagement on job matching platforms among both workers and employers. Karan Arora rounded out the session with findings from Japanese survey data indicating that present bias fluctuates across the week, being notably lower on Sundays; this temporal variation, he argued, could be harnessed to more effectively time interventions such as savings or wellness programme launches.
The final panel looked into nudging, mandates, and the functioning of markets. Srijita Ghosh and Eric Spurlino presented a theoretical model of strategic communication in insurance markets, revealing how sellers adjust the transparency of information based on buyers’ willingness to learn. Nattavudh Powdthavee, Yohanes Riyanto, and Xiaojie Zhang discussed experimental evidence showing that while transparency about statistical randomness reduces demand for uninformative financial advice, this effect vanishes when advice is framed as a charitable donationMashaael Mohammed Alsowelim demonstrated how removing design frictions (“sludges”) from investment platforms increased user trust and adoption, highlighting the need for regulatory monitoring of financial app designs. Closing the session, Haili Wu shared insights from China, where interventions framed around loss aversion were most effective at encouraging green consumption.
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Throughout the workshop, the breaks were a treat, featuring memorable snacks — including, most notably, coffee-filled buns that left a lasting impression on more than one attendee. The poster session displayed a wide range of innovative projects and sparked lively conversations during lunch on day 2. Beyond the academic discussions, the event provided rich opportunities for connection, reflection, and informal knowledge sharing.
This year’s workshop marked the second IBPPA event hosted at the National University of Singapore and succeeded in blending academic rigour with cultural exchange and community-building. Our sincere thanks go to the organisers for their hard work and generous hospitality. We look forward to seeing how the ideas and collaborations sparked here will unfold—and to many more IBPPA workshops in the years to come.