The relevance of mechanisms and mechanistic knowledge for behavioural interventions: the case of household energy consumption

Economics and Philosophy:1-20 (forthcoming)
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Abstract

We argue that behavioural public policies (BPP) should be categorized by the kind of mechanism through which they operate, not by the kind of treatment they implement. Reviewing the energy consumption BPP literature, we argue (i) that BPPs are currently categorized by treatment; (ii) that treatment-based categories are subject to mechanistic heterogeneity: there is substantial variation of mechanisms within each treatment type; and (iii) that they also display mechanistic overlap: there is substantial overlap between mechanisms across treatment types. Consequently, current categorizations of BPPs do not reveal the conditions of their efficacy and should be revised to better reflect mechanistic information.

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Author Profiles

Till Grüne-Yanoff
Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm
Caterina Marchionni
University of Helsinki
Tatu Nuotio
University of Helsinki

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References found in this work

The Nature of Epistemic Trust.Benjamin W. McCraw - 2015 - Social Epistemology 29 (4):413-430.
Why behavioural policy needs mechanistic evidence.Till Grüne-Yanoff - 2016 - Economics and Philosophy 32 (3):463-483.
What is mechanistic evidence, and why do we need it for evidence-based policy?Caterina Marchionni & Samuli Reijula - 2019 - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part A 73:54-63.
Extrapolation, Analogy, and Comparative Process Tracing.Francesco Guala - 2010 - Philosophy of Science 77 (5):1070-1082.

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