Economic Justice

Why Don’t People Take Free Cash?

by Prof. Syon Bhanot & Antonia Violante for Misbehaving

This post originally appeared on the Misbehaving Blog, powered by ideas42 and the Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago.   Two economists are walking down the street. One sees a $20 bill lying on the sidewalk and says, “Look at that $20 bill!” The second economist responds, “Nah, that’s not a $20 […]

A Fresh Start

by David Munguía Gómez & Jaclyn Lefkowitz

It’s now 2 weeks into the new year, and chances are most of us have spent the first several days of 2016 diligently working to keep our New Year’s resolutions. Once again, we’ve dragged ourselves to the over-crowded gym after work, we’ve braved the long lines at grocery stores to fill our carts with healthy […]

ideas42 Affiliate Series: A Talk with Mike Norton

ideas42’s network of academic affiliates represent some of the world’s foremost experts in behavioral science. With the ideas42 Affiliate Series, we invite them to share their insights and what inspires their exploration into human behavior. We recently invited Mike Norton of Harvard Business School to visit our New York office. He gave our team a fascinating talk […]

Creating Slack: Poverty Interrupted

This post is part of a series about Poverty Interrupted, ideas42’s groundbreaking effort to bring a behavioral science approach to the problem of intergenerational poverty. Imagine that your car is having some trouble and it will cost $150 in service to take care of the problem. Unfortunately, your insurance will only cover 10% of this […]

Introducing the ideas42 Directory of Academic Experts in Behavioral Science

We probably don’t need to tell you, savvy reader, that behavioral science is fascinating. The insights on human behavior that have come from the last few decades of research are not only profound and compelling, but can also delight. Take loss aversion. First demonstrated by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky, this principle says we dislike […]

Cut the Costs: Poverty Interrupted

For the 45.3 million Americans who struggle to cover basic expenses, living in poverty is costly in terms of time, money, and cognition. Recent research by two of ideas42’s cofounders gives a name to the cognitive costs of poverty: a bandwidth tax, levied by the experience of scarcity. They find that lacking a key resource, […]

ideas42 Affiliate Series: A Talk with Anandi Mani

ideas42’s network of academic affiliates represent some of the world’s foremost experts in behavioral science. With the ideas42 Affiliate Series, we invite them to share their insights and what inspires their exploration into human behavior. For the second interview of the ideas42 Affiliate Series, we recently invited Anandi Mani to visit our New York office to give […]

ideas42 Affiliate Series: A Talk with Angela Duckworth

ideas42’s network of academic affiliates represent some of the world’s foremost experts in behavioral science. In their efforts to address some of society’s toughest problems—from poverty alleviation to improving health care—these scholars have continually generated surprising and often counterintuitive scientific insights about why we make the choices we do. Their research illuminates our behavioral interventions […]

Breaking New Ground in the Fight Against Poverty

“If you don’t have money, if you don’t come from money, then your whole life is a struggle.” Though Mark* said this with a smile, we sensed his exhaustion. He spoke lovingly of his 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son, but explained that it was difficult to balance looking after his family with complicated work schedules. […]