A recent Toronto conference, sponsored by the non-profit Public Policy Forum, looked at how to encourage people to save more for retirement. One discussion tackled the psychological origins of undersaving, where David Laibson a Harvard behavioral economist, offered plenty of examples of the problem along with some possible solutions.
http://metronews.ca/money/1205420/psychology-of-undersaving-and-how-to-take-charge/
While behavioral economics has typically been used by companies in many industries to entice consumers to make bad decisions (e.g., pricing or advertising products in ways that entice us to make impulse purchases or consume junk foods), health is one sector in which the incentives are now aligned so that the private sector is motivated to nudge people to make good decisions.
http://www.publicfinanceinternational.org/features/2014/10/nudging-healthy-behaviors/
We have published our first newsletter of the year! Look forward to more in the upcoming months.
