Author

  • Javier Cifuentes-Faura

    • University of Murcia, Spain
    • Spain

Abstract

Behavioral Economics seeks to understand the environments where decisions are made and to build proposals to optimize them. It offers the possibility to improve the design of public policies and, therefore, to enhance their results. The appearance of COVID-19 has caused thousands of deaths and millions of infected people around the world. This article describes the main behavioral biases that people exhibit during this pandemic. In order to curb the number of infections and stop the panic, it is essential to use Behavioral Economics tools, such as those proposed in this paper, to design messages that are simple and that motivate appropriate changes in human behavior. This work shows the importance of transmitting information correctly, of being aware of our own biases and that individual responsibility is fundamental to get out of this crisis.

Keywords

References

  • Battmann, W., & Klumb, P. (1993). Behavioural economics and compliance with safety regulations. Safety Science, 16(1), 35–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/0925-7535(93)90005- X
  • Cárdenas, J. C., Maya, D., López, M. C. (2003). “Métodos Experimentales y Participativos para el Análisis de la Acción Colectiva y la Cooperación en el Uso de Recursos Naturales por Parte de Comunidades Rurales”. Cuadernos de Desarrollo Rural, número 50, PUJ Bogotá.
  • Duhigg, C (2012). How companies learn your secrets. New York Times from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html)
  • Fatás, E. y Roig, J.M. (2004). “Una Introducción a La Metodología Experimental en Economía”. Cuadernos de Economía, Número 27, pp. 7-36.
  • Fogg, B. (2009). A behavior model for persuasive design. In Proceedings of the 4th international Conference on Persuasive Technology, page 40. ACM.
  • Haushofer, J. y Metcalf, J. (2020). Combining behavioral economics and infectious disease epidemiology to mitigate the COVID-19 outbreak. Consultado en: http://www.princeton.edu/haushofer/publications/Haushofer_Metcalf_Corona_2020-04-19.pdf
  • Heshmat, S. (2011). Eating Behavior and Obesity: Behavioral Economics Strategies for Health Professionals. New York: Springer Publishing Company
  • Kahneman, D. (2013). Foreword. In E. Shafir (Ed.), The Behavioral Foundations of Public Policy (pp. vii-ix). New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
  • Kwok, Y. L. A., Gralton, J., & McLaws, M.-L. (2015). Face touching: A frequent habit that has implications for hand hygiene. American Journal of Infection Control, 43(2), 112–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajic.2014.10.015
  • Michie, S. & Johnston, M. (2012). Theories and techniques of behaviour change: Developing a cumulative science of behaviour change. Health Psychology Review 6:1, 1-6. DOI: 10.1080/17437199.2012.654964
  • Samson, A. (Ed.) (2014). The Behavioral Economics Guide 2014 (with a foreword by George Loewenstein and Rory Sutherland), 1st Ed. Retrieved from http://www.behavioraleconomics.com.
  • Thaler, R. H. & Sunstein, C. R. (2008). Nudge. Improving Decisions about Health, Wealth, and Happiness. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Downloads

No downloads have been recorded for this article yet. Figures appear here once readers begin downloading the full text.

How to Cite

Cifuentes-Faura, J. (2020). The Importance of Behavioral Economics during COVID-19. Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 12(3(J), 70-74. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v12i3(J).3038

Share this article

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Javier Cifuentes-Faura (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, the editorial team  edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.

This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.

Keywords

Section

Research Paper

Published in

Vol. 12 No. 3(J) (2020) Markets, Enterprise & Behavioural Policy View issue contents

Published

2020-07-25

Submissions

Have research to publish? Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies welcomes submissions.

Make a Submission