This book is an introduction to how behavioural economics is used to inform policy developments. Academics, policy makers and practitioners with a diverse disciplinary backgrounds, including political science, sociology and anthropology, will benefit from this book, as will general readers with an interest in behavioural public policy.

The use of behavioural science to inform policy is one of the main developments in the social sciences over the last several decades. In this book, Adam Oliver offers an accessible introduction to the development of behavioural public policy, examining how behavioural economics might be used to inform the design of a broad spectrum of policy frameworks, from nudges, to bans on certain individual behaviours, to the regulation of the commercial sector. He also considers how behavioural economics can explain and predict phenomena as a challenge to economists' assumptions around how people perceive time, utility and money. The book offers an intellectual foundation for all those concerned with behavioural public policy, from academics, undergraduate and postgraduate students with a diverse range of disciplinary perspectives, such as economics, political science, sociology and anthropology, to policy makers and practitioners working directly with behavioural public policy in their everyday working lives.

Advance praise: 'Taking off from the theoretical bases of behavioural economics, Adam Oliver illustrates its application to public policy with fascinating examples, largely regarding health care. The Origins of Behavioural Public Policy is for everyone:  from novices in the field to experts who previously thought they knew everything about it.' George Akerlof, Winner of the 2001 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences