The 12th annual one day conference on Economics and Psychology will be held on November 29th in Dublin, jointly organised by researchers in ESRI and UCD. The purpose of these sessions is to develop the link between Economics, Psychology, and cognate disciplines throughout Ireland. A special theme of these events is the implications of behavioural economics for public policy. Registration to attend is free of charge. The event takes place in the seminar room of the Economic and Social Research Institute. To register for the workshop, please click here.

Preliminary programme

8.50am to 9am: Registration and Welcome

9am to 10.15am: Session 1. Behavioural Science and Policy 1

Robert Murphy (Department of Health and Stirling) “Improving engagement with inpatient and day case hospital appointments through a behaviourally-designed appointment offer letter”.

Dr. Cameron Belton (ESRI) “Eliciting Trade-offs between Water Charges and Service Benefits in Scotland”.

Clare Delargy (Behavioural Insights Team) “Behavioural Science and Policy at BIT”.

Professor Orla Doyle (UCD) “Results of Preparing for Life randomised trial at age 9”.

10.15am to 10.30am: Coffee

10.30am to 11.45am: Session 2. Behavioural Econ, Law and Regulation

Dr. Hannah Julienne (ESRI) “The impact of disclosure about online personalised pricing on consumer awareness and behaviour”.

Dr. Sarah Arduin (TCD) “Nudging within the constraints of Administrative Law”.

Dr. Oana Peia (UCD) “Financial contagion and the wealth effect: an experimental study”.

Dr. Kate Laffan (UCD) “Let’s face it: exploring the welfare effects of calorie information with facial expression analysis”.

11.45am to 12.45pm: Keynote Session 1. Trust and Policy-making Professor Maria Baghramian (UCD)

12.45am to 1.30pm: Lunch

1.30pm to 2.45pm: Session 3. Behavioural Science and Policy 2

Lauren O’Hanlon (Stirling) “An Examination of Gendered Wording in Job Advertisements in the Irish Civil Service”.

Martina Barjakova (ESRI) “Using big data to model farmers’ behaviour: Determinants of noncompliance with the Nitrates Regulations”.

Ciarán Lavin (ESRI) “Investigating the effect of visual cues of portion size on consumption of high fat, salt, or sugar (HFSS) foods”.

Rossella Di Domenico (NUIG) “Assessing farmers’ readiness to change water-quality related behaviours: a COM-B perspective”.

2.45pm to 3pm: Coffee

3pm to 4pm: Session 4. Economics, Psychology, and Health

Dr. Laura Gormley (ESRI) “Increasing Physical Activity Among Parents of Young Children in Disadvantaged Communities – An Experimental Study”.

Karen Arulsamy (UCD) “Mental health, pension participation and automatic enrolment: Evidence from the UK”.

Prof Michael Daly (NUIM) “School composition, adult socioeconomic status, and health”.

4pm to 5pm: Keynote Session 2. Professor Adam Oliver (LSE) “Towards a new political economy of behavioural public policy”.

Keynote Bios:

Adam Oliver teaches behavioural economics and behavioural public policy, and has published widely in these areas, and indeed also in the areas of health economics and health policy. He is the founder of the Health Equity Network, the European Health Policy Group, the Behavioural Public Policy Network and the London Health Economics Group. His latest book is called The Origins of Behavioural Public Policy (Cambridge, 2017), and he is editor in chief of the journals Health Economics, Policy and Law and Behavioural Public Policy, both published by Cambridge University Press.

Maria Baghramian is a professor of philosophy at the University College Dublin (UCD). Her main research areas are philosophy of language, relativism and rationality, 20th-century American Philosophy (Putnam, Davidson, Rorty, Quine), pragmatism, philosophy of mind, Cognitive Science. Her research and publications primarily focus on discussions of objectivity, relativism and pluralism as solutions to the intractable diversity of beliefs and values, and on contemporary American Philosophy, particularly as it relates to the work of Quine, Davidson, Putnam and Rorty. She was elected a member of the Royal Irish Academy in 2010. Since 2003 she has been the Chief Editor of the International Journal of Philosophical Studies (IJPS). Baghramian is the founder and the president of the Society for Women in Philosophy (SWIP) – Ireland (2010) and of Aporo: Irish Network of Philosophical Research.