Behavioural insights, nudge and the choice environment in obesity policy

Martin Smith and Nihan Toprakkiran

Policy Studies, 2019, vol. 40, issue 2, 173-187

Abstract: As obesity constitutes a growing health concern over the world, it has also become an important part of public policy agendas. This paper critically analyses the development of the policy debate and measures around obesity in the UK. The paper contributes to the debate by challenging the current individualized nature of nudge policies as the most popular application of behavioural economics to policy. We argue that it may be possible to change the choice architecture of individuals through nudge, but the overall effectiveness of such policies would be limited because the broader social, economic and political architecture shaping individual choices is ignored. The case of the UK provides a good illustration where concrete policy measures are predominantly focused on choice despite growing recognition of the structural determinants of obesity, and the governments are thus able to avoid threatening free markets and existing economic interests. Whilst the recently introduced sugar tax constitutes a certain shift in policy, it clearly remains an exception within the whole policy package.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01442872.2018.1554806 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:cposxx:v:40:y:2019:i:2:p:173-187

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/cpos20

DOI: 10.1080/01442872.2018.1554806

Access Statistics for this article

Policy Studies is currently edited by Toby James

More articles in Policy Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().