Events

Getting lost in a field: a personal history in behavioural public policy

Hosted by the Department of Social Policy

In-person and online public event (Old Theatre, Old Building)

Speaker

Professor Adam Oliver

Professor Adam Oliver

Chair

Professor Alex Voorhoeve

Professor Alex Voorhoeve

In his inaugural lecture, Adam Oliver will describe how he became involved in, and has helped contribute towards the development of, the still relatively new field of behavioural public policy (BPP).

He will briefly detail how the intellectual architecture of the field – i.e. its journal, Annual International Conference and Association – came into existence, and allude to his hopes for how BPP might develop in the future. Namely, that more liberal, autonomy-respecting frameworks emerge to at least co-exist on equal terms with the paternalistic frameworks that have dominated the field to date.

Meet our speaker and chair

Adam Oliver is Professor of Behavioural Public Policy in the Department of Social Policy. He has helped to develop a whole new field of public policy – behavioural public policy – that focusses on how the findings of behavioural economics specifically, and behavioural science more broadly, can be linked to public policy concerns.

Alex Voorhoeve is Professor in the Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). He studied economics and philosophy at Erasmus University Rotterdam, Cambridge University, and UCL. He joined LSE in 2004 and has worked here ever since, though he has held visiting positions at Harvard (2008-09), Princeton (2012-13) and the National Institutes of Health, U.S. (2016-17). His research covers decision theory, moral psychology, and the theory and practice of fair distribution, with particular application to the allocation of resources for health. He has served on the WHO Consultative Committee on Equity and Universal Health Coverage.

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The Department of Social Policy (@LSESocialPolicy) provides top quality international and multidisciplinary research and teaching on social and public policy challenges facing countries across the world. From its foundation in 1912 it has carried out cutting edge research on core social problems, and helped to develop policy solutions. 

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