Behavioural Insights Teams (BITs) and policy change: An exploration of impact, location, and temporality of policy advice

• Main Authors: MUKHERJEE, Ishani, GIEST, Sarah
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2020
• Subjects: Behavioural Insights Teams; behavioral insights; policy advice; policy change; policy design; Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/3274; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/4531/viewcontent/BITs_PolicyChange_pvoa.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Behavioural Insights Teams (BITs) have gained prominence in government as policy advisors and are increasingly linked to the way policy instruments are designed. Despite the rise of BITs as unique knowledge brokers mediating the use of behavioral insights for policymaking, they remain underexplored in the growing literature on policy advice and advisory systems. The article emphasizes that the visible impact that BITs have on the content of policy instruments, the level of political support they garner and their structural diversity in different political departments, all set them apart from typical policy brokers in policy advisory systems connecting the science-policy divide.