15. Behavioural insights in Robodebt: at last, an argument!

The Westminster Tradition

In this episode, Danielle and Alison bring the conflict on their views of behavioural insights. Danielle thinks it's a revelation that government started thinking about its customers and what works for them. Alison thinks it's oversold, and not always deployed in the interests of the people. Caroline wonders if we can all just get along.
Ultimately, the listeners win.
References from the episode include:

• If Books Could Kill podcast on Nudge
• Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein Nudge: Improving decisions about health, wealth and happiness (2009).
• On the replicability crisis in behavioural economics, see Gideon Lewis-Kraus 'They studied dishonesty. Was their work a lie?' New Yorker.

The intro grab features Jason McNamara (DHS) and Angus Scott KC, 5 December 2022

Now for some appropriately bureaucratic disclaimers....
While we have tried to be as thorough in our research as busy full time jobs and lives allow, we definitely don’t guarantee that we’ve got all the details right.
If you want rigorous reporting on Robodebt, we recommend the work of Rick Morton at the Saturday Paper, Chris Knaus and Luke Henriques-Gomes at the Guardian, Ben Eltham at Crikey, Julian Bajkowski at The Mandarin, and of course, the Robodebt Royal Commission itself.
Please feel free to email us corrections, episode suggestions, or anything else, at [e-mail].
Thanks to PanPot audio for our intro and outro music.
'Til next time!