Dr Matteo Galizzi Old 2.35

Dr Matteo M Galizzi

This course is available on the MSc in Organisational and Social Psychology, MSc in Psychology of Economic Life, MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology and MSc in Social and Public Communication. This course is available as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

No pre-requisites required.

The course aims to introduce to students the main tools and principles of behavioural sciences and the key state-of-the-art applications to health economics, policy, practice, and management. The course is designed to enhance students’ abilities to apply rigorously and critically behavioural science tools to concrete challenges in the health area, to critically identify and measure the behavioural mechanisms potentially leading to heterogeneity in behavioural change, and to account for them in the design and interpretation of the behavioural science intervention. It covers principles of behavioural science; behavioural health economics and policy, and behavioural experiments in health; behavioural principles for information policies in health; financial and non-financial incentives in health; nudging behavioural change in health; behavioural principles for regulation of health and healthcare; risk preferences and health; time preferences and health; social preferences and health; behavioural spillovers in health.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of seminars in the LT.

The course is delivered in Lent Term over 10 lectures of 1 hour (1 per week, over weeks 1-5, and 7-11) and 10 weekly seminar sessions of 1 hour (1 per week, over weeks 1-5, and 7-11). Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

This extended content has been included for the information of the GSSC. A shortened version of this content will be provided for the published course guide:

Lectures and Seminars:

Week 1

Lecture 1: Introduction to the course. Principles of behavioural science. Dual processing models: system 1 and system 2. Emotions and affect heuristic in decision-making. Fluency and priming. Mental accounting. An overview of the key principles of behavioural science.

Seminar 1: How to practically use principles of behavioural science in health and healthcare contexts: the MINDSPACE, EAST, and SALIENT mnemonics.

Week 2

Lecture 2: Behavioural health policy: an operational definition. Behavioural insights and behavioural methods.  Randomised controlled experiments in health: a taxonomy and a toolkit spanning the lab to the field. Behavioural experiments in health: online, lab, lab-field, artefactual field, framed field, natural field, and naturally occurring experiments. Population-level randomised controlled natural field experiments in health: the RAND Health Insurance experiment, the Oregon Health Insurance experiment, the China Rural Health Care and Health Care Reforms experiments. Ten misunderstandings about behavioural experiments in health, and ten directions for research and policy applications. A taxonomy of behavioural health policies: information policies, financial and non-financial incentives, nudges, and behavioural regulation in health.

Seminar 2: When and how to practically use the different types of behavioural experiments in health and healthcare contexts: guidelines, examples, tips, rules of thumb.

Week 3

Lecture 3: Behavioural principles for information policies in health. Designing information policies in health around behavioural principles: saliency, framing, labelling, anchoring, priming, simplification, curiosity, information avoidance, default options. The role of reminders. Behavioural experiments on health informational policies: a review of lab and field evidence on nutrition, weight loss, physical exercise, smoking cessation, flu vaccination, HIV prevention, cancer screening, medications adherence, drugs and treatment compliance, attendance of medical and diagnostic appointments, health insurance behaviour, blood and organs donation, physicians’ decisions and behaviour.

Seminar 3: How to practically use behavioural science principles for information policies in health: saliency, framing, labelling, anchoring, priming, simplification, curiosity, information avoidance, default options, reminders.

Week 4

Lecture 4: Financial and non-financial incentives in health. Incentives for health behaviours and for healthcare professionals. Monetary incentives (e.g. cash payments, deductions, matching) and non-monetary incentives (e.g. in-kind transfers, vouchers) in health. Linear and non-linear monetary incentives in health. One-off and repeated monetary incentives in health. Short-run and long-run incentives in health. Monetary, ‘symbolic’, and ‘behaviourally super-charged’ incentives in health. Designing incentives in health around behavioural principles: saliency, risk aversion, loss aversion, bracketing, social norms, peer pressure, regret aversion, over-weighting of small probabilities, over-confidence, over-optimism, time-inconsistency, curiosity. Behavioural experiments on incentives in health: a review of lab and field evidence on nutrition, weight loss, physical exercise, smoking cessation, flu vaccination, HIV prevention, cancer screening, medications adherence, drugs and treatment compliance, attendance of medical and diagnostic appointments, health insurance behaviour, blood and organs donation, physicians’ decisions and behaviour, healthcare management and financing.

Seminar 4: How to practically use incentives in health applications: incentive design, saliency, risk aversion, loss aversion, bracketing, social norms, peer pressure, regret aversion, over-weighting of small probabilities, over-confidence, over-optimism, time-inconsistency, curiosity.

Week 5

Lecture 5: Nudging behavioural change in health. Designing nudges in health around behavioural principles: choice architecture, saliency, priming, reference dependence, anchoring, simplification, default options. The role of time-inconsistency, commitment, and pre-commitment devices, implementation intentions, and habits formation. Behavioural experiments on nudges in health: a review of lab and field evidence on nutrition, weight loss, physical exercise, smoking cessation, flu vaccination, HIV prevention, cancer screening, medications adherence, drugs and treatment compliance, attendance of medical and diagnostic appointments, health insurance behaviour, blood and organs donation, physicians’ decisions and behaviour, healthcare management and financing.

Seminar 5: How to practically use nudges in health applications: choice architecture, saliency, priming, reference dependence, anchoring, simplification, default options, commitment and pre-commitment devices, implementation intentions, habits formation.

Week 6

No lecture: Reading week

Week 7

Lecture 6: Behavioural principles for regulation of health and healthcare. Behavioural experiments on health and healthcare regulation: lab and field evidence on sin taxes (e.g. ‘fat taxes’, ‘soda taxes’), ‘thin subsidies’, food super-sizing, food advertising, smoking bans, vaccination and prevention policies, generic drugs, transport and urban planning, health insurance behaviour, blood and organs donation, end of life decisions, healthcare management and financing. Behavioural mechanisms potentially leading to heterogeneity in behavioural change: risk preferences, time preferences, social preferences, behavioural spillovers.

Seminar 6: Group presentations.

Week 8

Lecture 7: Risk preferences in health. Measuring expected utility theory (EUT) and non-EUT risk preferences models in health. Incentive-compatible and self-reported measures of risk preferences in health. Domain-specificity, convergent validity, temporal stability, and external validity of risk preferences measures. Risk preferences, risk perception, prudence, temperance, over-confidence, and locus-of-control in health. Neurobiological aspects of risk preferences. Evidence on risk preferences in health: a review of lab and field experiments, with a special attention on external validity. Risk preferences as behavioural mechanisms potentially leading to heterogeneity in behavioural change. Accounting for risk preferences heterogeneity when designing information policies, financial and non-financial incentives, nudges, and behavioural regulation in health.

Seminar 7: How to practically measure risk preferences in health and healthcare contexts: the Domain-Specific Risk Taking scale, the scale-based self-assessed measure for willingness to take risks, the trade-off method, the multiple lotteries choice, the balloon task, the binary choice battery, the investment game, the binary lotteries multiple price list method, the bomb risk elicitation task.

Week 9

Lecture 8: Time preferences in health. Measuring exponential and non-exponential discounting models in health: hyperbolic, quasi-hyperbolic, fixed-cost, and Weibull discounting models. Time-inconsistent preferences, self-control, impulsiveness, and habits formation in health. Incentive-compatible and self-reported measures of time preferences in health. Domain-specificity, convergent validity, temporal stability, and external validity of time preferences measures. Time preferences and subjective time perception in health. Neurobiological aspects of time preferences. Evidence on time preferences in health: a review of lab and field experiments, with a special attention on external validity. Time preferences as behavioural mechanisms potentially leading to heterogeneity in behavioural change. Accounting for time preferences heterogeneity when designing information policies, financial and non-financial incentives, nudges, and behavioural regulation in health.

Seminar 8: How to practically measure time preferences in health and healthcare contexts: the smaller-sooner larger-later binary options multiple price list approach, the converting delay into risk method, the convex time budget method, the binary lottery method, the inter-temporal design of the binary lotteries multiple price list approach, the direct method.

Week 10

Lecture 9: Social preferences in health. Physicians’ and healthcare professionals’ social preferences. Social preferences, motivations, responsiveness to incentives, and social value orientation in health. Social, distributional, and re-distributional preferences in health and healthcare. Measuring altruism, fairness, reciprocation, trust, and cooperation in health and healthcare contexts. Domain-specificity, convergent validity, temporal stability, and external validity of social preferences measures. Neurobiological aspects of social preferences. Evidence on social preferences in health: a review of lab and field experiments, with a special attention on external validity. Social preferences as behavioural mechanisms potentially leading to heterogeneity in behavioural change. Accounting for social preferences heterogeneity when designing information policies, financial and non-financial incentives, nudges, and behavioural regulation in health.

Seminar 9: How to practically measure social preferences in health and healthcare contexts: dictator game, ultimatum game, trust game, public good game, and coordination games in health.

Week 11

Lecture 10: Behavioural spillovers in health. A definition and a taxonomy: promoting, permitting, and purging behavioural spillovers in health. Unintended consequences and spillover effects of informational policies, incentives, and nudges in health. The untapped potential of longitudinal lab and field experiments and of ‘behavioural data linking’ for testing and measuring behavioural spillovers in health. Behavioural experiments on behavioural spillovers in health: a review of lab and field evidence on nutrition, physical exercise, smoking, health insurance behaviour. Behavioural spillovers as behavioural mechanisms potentially leading to heterogeneity in behavioural change. Accounting for behavioural spillovers when designing information policies, financial and non-financial incentives, nudges, and behavioural regulation in health. Wrap-up of the course.

Seminar 10: How to practically test and measure behavioural spillovers in health applications: longitudinal lab, field, and lab-field experiments; linking behavioural experiments to longitudinal surveys, administrative records, online panels, biomarkers banks, smart cards and scan data, and other big data sources.

Students will be expected to produce 15 presentations in the LT.

For the formative assignment, you will work in small groups (3-4 students) to produce a presentation in which you will need to propose a design and implementation of a possible behavioural science intervention in health. The structure of the presentation will be as follows: a) Introduce the healthcare settings and institutional constraints, the health policy or management challenges, and the specific research question; b) Describe how to design and implement a behavioural science intervention to answer that question; and c) Explain which research design, which specific behavioural science principles, and which practical implementation tools will be employed.

At the end of the presentation, each of you will need to clarify your exact contribution to the group work. This will involve specifying the aspect of the formative assignment that was under your lead. You will be expected to divide the groupwork amongst yourselves in such a way that each of you has a different task and leads the contribution to the whole groupwork in relation to that task. The expected length of the presentation is 15 minutes. You will be expected to submit the formative assignment in the last seminar of the course.

To assist you throughout the group work process and increase the effectiveness of your teamwork experience, we will provide you with resources that will make the organizational part of the group work easier. The resources will involve a teamwork checklist and guidelines for managing the groupwork process.

-Charness, G., Gneezy, U. (2009). Incentives to exercise, Econometrica, 77(3), 909-931.

-Dolan, P., Galizzi, M.M. (2014). Getting policy-makers to listen to field experiments. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 30(4), 725-752.

-Dolan, P., Galizzi, M.M. (2015). Like ripples on a pond: behavioural spillovers and their consequences for research and policy. Journal of Economic Psychology, 47, 1-16.

-Dolan, P., Galizzi, M.M., Navarro-Martinez, D. (2015). Paying people to eat or not to eat? Carryover effects of monetary incentives on eating behaviour. Social Science & Medicine, 133, 153-158.

-Galizzi, M.M. (2014). What is really behavioural in behavioural health policies? And, does it work? Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, 36(1), 25-60.

-Galizzi, M.M., Harrison, G.W., Miraldo, M. (2017). Experimental methods and behavioural insights in health economics: estimating risk and time preferences in health. In Baltagi B, Moscone F (Eds.) Health Econometrics in Contributions to Economic Analysis, Emerald Publishing, UK, in press.

-Galizzi, M.M., Miraldo, M., Stavropoulou, C., van der Pol, M. (2016). Doctors-patients differences in risk and time preferences: a field experiment. Journal of Health Economics, 50, 171-182.

-Galizzi, M.M. (2017). Behavioral experiments in health. In Hamilton J (Ed.) Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, in press.

-Milkman, K., Minson, J., Volpp (2014). Holding the hunger games hostage at the gym: an evaluation of temptation bundling. Management Science, 60(2), 283-299.

-Volpp, K., John, L., Troxel, A., Norton, L., Fassbender, J., Loewenstein, G. (2008). Financial incentive-based approaches for weight loss. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300, 2631-2637.

 

-Ansher, C.A., Ariely, D., Nagler, A., Rudd, M., Schwartz, J.A., Shah, A. (2014). Better medicine by default. Medical Decision Making, 34(2), 147-158.

-Charness, G., Gneezy, U. (2009). Incentives to exercise, Econometrica, 77(3), 909-931.

-Dolan, P., Galizzi, M.M. (2014). Because I’m worth it. A lab-field experiment on spillover effects of incentives in health. LSE CEP Discussion Paper CEPDP1286.

-Dolan, P., Galizzi, M.M. (2014). Getting policy-makers to listen to field experiments. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 30(4), 725-752.

-Dolan, P., Galizzi, M.M. (2015). Like ripples on a pond: behavioural spillovers and their consequences for research and policy. Journal of Economic Psychology, 47, 1-16.

-Dolan, P., Galizzi, M.M., Navarro-Martinez, D. (2015). Paying people to eat or not to eat? Carryover effects of monetary incentives on eating behaviour. Social Science & Medicine, 133, 153-158.

-Dolan, P., Hallsworth, M., Halpern, D., King, D., Metcalfe, R., Vlaev, I. (2012). Influencing behaviour: the MINDSPACE way. Journal of Economic Psychology, 33, 264-277.

-Galizzi, M.M. (2014). What is really behavioural in behavioural health policies? And, does it work? Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, 36(1), 25-60.

-Galizzi, M.M., Harrison, G.W., Miraldo, M. (2017). Experimental methods and behavioural insights in health economics: estimating risk and time preferences in health. In Baltagi B, Moscone F (Eds.) Health Econometrics in Contributions to Economic Analysis, Emerald Publishing, UK, in press.

-Galizzi, M.M., Machado, S., Miniaci, R. (2016). Temporal stability, cross-validity, and external validity of risk preferences measures: field experimental evidence for a UK representative sample. London School of Economics, Department of Social Policy, London, UK: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/67554/.

-Galizzi, M.M., Miraldo, M. (2017). Are you what you eat? Healthy behaviour and risk preferences. B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, 17(1), doi: 10.1515/bejeap-2016-0081.

-Galizzi, M.M., Miraldo, M., Stavropoulou, C. (2016). In sickness but not in wealth: field evidence on patients’ risk preferences in the financial and health domain. Medical Decision Making, 36(4), 503-517.

-Galizzi, M.M., Miraldo, M., Stavropoulou, C., van der Pol, M. (2016). Doctors-patients differences in risk and time preferences: a field experiment. Journal of Health Economics, 50, 171-182.

-Galizzi, M.M., Wiesen, D. (2017). Behavioral experiments in health. In Hamilton J (Ed.) Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Economics and Finance, Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, in press.

-John, L., Loewenstein, G., Troxel, A., Norton, L., Fassbender, J., Volpp, K. (2011). Financial incentives for extended weight loss: a randomized, controlled trial. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 26, 621-626.

-Milkman, K., Minson, J., Volpp (2014). Holding the hunger games hostage at the gym: an evaluation of temptation bundling. Management Science, 60(2), 283-299.

-Newhouse, J.P. and the Insurance Experiment Group. (1993). Free for All? Lessons from the RAND Health Insurance Experiment. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

-Schwartz, J.A., Chapman, G.B. (1999). Are more options always better? The attraction effect in physicians’ decisions about medications. Medical Decision Making, 19, 315-323.

-Schwartz, J.A., Mochon, D., Wyper, L., Maroba, J., Patel, D., Ariely, D. (2014). Healthier by precommittment. Psychological Science, 25(2), 538-546.

-Thaler, R.H., Sunnstein, C.R. (2009). Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness. Yale: Yale University Press.

-Volpp, K., John, L., Troxel, A., Norton, L., Fassbender, J., Loewenstein, G. (2008). Financial incentive-based approaches for weight loss. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300, 2631-2637.

-Volpp, K., Troxel. A., Pauly, M., Glick, H., Puig, A., Asch, D., Galvin, R., Zhu, J., Wan, F., DeGuzman, J., Corbett, E., Weiner, J., Audrain-McGovern, J. (2009). A randomized trial of financial incentives for smoking cessation. New England Journal of Medicine, 350(7), 699-709.

Coursework (100%, 3000 words) in the LT.

You will be expected to write a 3,000 word report to be submitted at the end of Lent Term. The reports will need to be submitted individually and will require you to report on your own contribution to the groupwork undertaken as part of the formative assignment. More precisely, you will start by giving a brief overview of how your group tackled the four points crucial to the formative task: a) Introduce the healthcare settings and institutional constraints, the health policy or management challenges, and the specific research question; b) Describe how to design and implement a behavioural science intervention to answer that question; and c) Explain which research design, which specific behavioural science principles, and which practical implementation tools will be employed; d) Discuss the behavioural mechanisms potentially leading to heterogeneity in behavioural change, and how the behavioural science intervention aims at measuring them and accounting for them; e); Discuss the contribution of the behavioural health intervention in the context of the evaluation and synthesis of the existing evidence on the effectiveness of similar behavioural interventions. Then, you will proceed by providing an in-depth exposition of your own contribution to the groupwork in relation to the part you oversaw. In the report, we will expect you to use in-text scholarly citations and provide a reference list at the end. You will be expected to submit the summative report by the end of the Lent Term.