About ideas42What We Do -- We grew out of research programs in psychology and economics at top academic institutions, and our work draws on decades of experimental scientific research. We use these insights to design scalable ways to improve programs, policies and products in the real world. We work with a wide range of partners, from leading foundations and non-profit organizations, to government bodies and businesses. In short, anyone who wants to make a positive difference to peoples’ lives.ideas42I42_3cc0a948-c4b0-11e5-9d3b-295b134596b3Who We Are -- From a small project at Harvard in 2008, when a team of top academics joined forces to create the first behavioral design lab in the world, we have grown into an organization with global reach and influence. We now have offices in New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C., and work on projects in almost every corner of the world. ideas42 is made up of a group of talented, creative professionals from different backgrounds and disciplines, united by our expertise and experience in applying insights from the behavioral sciences to today’s most difficult social problems.Josh WrightExecutive Director -- Josh Wright is an Executive Director at ideas42. In addition to responsibility for the organization overall, Josh focuses on designing and implementing behavioral solutions to problems in financial services, poverty, healthcare, and education. Josh has extensive experience in the for-profit, non-profit, and public sectors; industry experience in financial services, media and entertainment, housing, and youth development; and functional expertise in business strategy, new business development, and new venture creation. Immediately prior to joining ideas42, Josh headed up the Office of Financial Education and Financial Access at the United States Department of the Treasury, where he worked with ideas42 founder Sendhil Mullainathan. Previously, Josh held positions at the Center for Community Change, Booz Allen and Hamilton’s Commercial Management Consulting business, and was a Senior Executive at Bertelsmann’s Random House, Inc. In addition, Josh served two terms as an elected City Councilmember for the City of Takoma Park, Maryland. Josh has been a visiting lecturer at the Princeton Woodrow Wilson School, serves on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Behavior, and is a frequent public speaker on applied behavioral science. He holds a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University and an MBA from the Yale School of Management.Piyush TantiaExecutive Director -- Piyush Tantia is co-Executive Director at ideas42. Since joining ideas42 in 2009 he has worked closely with leading academics from Harvard, MIT and Princeton to design and implement solutions in various areas including household finance, education, international development, poverty, criminal justice and healthcare. Along with ideas42’s co-founders, he transitioned the organization from a research initiative at Harvard University to an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit. Prior to joining ideas42, Piyush was a Partner in Oliver Wyman’s Retail Banking and Finance & Risk practices. During his 14 years at Oliver Wyman, he advised clients in a vast array of retail financial services businesses including consumer lending, deposits, microfinance, and serving the unbanked and underbanked. Piyush has been a visiting lecturer at the Princeton Woodrow Wilson School and frequently lectures at Harvard, Wharton and Columbia. Piyush has served on the World Economic Forum Global Agenda Council on Behavior and the board of the MIX. He is on the executive committee for Innovation for Poverty Action’s Financial Capability Research Fund. He holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, a B.S.Econ from the Wharton School and a B.S.E. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania.Alissa FishbaneManaging Director -- Alissa Fishbane is a Managing Director at ideas42. She has extensive experience converting innovative, evidence-based ideas into practice, having designed, tested and scaled interventions in developing countries and the United States across areas including global health, education, criminal justice and financial inclusion. Before joining ideas42, Alissa was the Managing Director and a founding executive of Deworm the World, which she helped grow from zero to serving 35 million children annually by scaling school deworming programs with government partners. Prior to that, she was the Latin America Director and founding Mexico Country Director for Innovations for Poverty Action, where she developed and implemented randomized evaluations reaching over 375,000 low-income families. Most recently Alissa was a Senior Director at City Year, where she led the design and business planning process to create a new secondary school for underserved youth. Alissa graduated with honors in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley and has a Master’s in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government.Mark EdenDirector of Finance & Administration -- Mark Eden is the Director of Finance and Administration at ideas42, where he applies over 20 years accounting and operations experience gathered from Europe and America. Primarily working in the audit, services and education sectors, he has frequently assisted startups and rapidly growing organizations in commercial and non-profit environments. Prior to ideas42, Mark worked at the Brooklyn Kindergarten Society working with New York ACS, helping to roll out their Early Learn program for a group of early childhood education centers in low income areas of Brooklyn. When not discovering new tips and tricks for Excel, Mark is a passionate collector of underground music and can often be found in his basement studio deconstructing his favorite tracks. Mark has a BA in Accounting and Financial Management from the University of Sheffield (UK), and is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.Saugato DattaManaging Director -- Saugato Datta is a Managing Director at ideas42. He works with partners to design, test and scale programs and products that use behavioral economics to benefit poor people in developing countries. He is also helping ideas42 think about its strategy for impact in the developing world, and writes extensively on the application of behavioral economics to development programs and more generally. Before joining ideas42, Saugato spent three years writing about economics at The Economist in London. His beat included behavioral and development economics, international trade, academic research, and the international financial institutions. He also edited the third edition of Economics: Making Sense of the Modern Economy, an edited selection of Economist articles about economics. Prior to this, he was a researcher at the World Bank in Washington, DC. He has published papers on discrimination in Indian labor markets and the effects of infrastructure development in developing countries. Saugato has a PhD in economics from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and undergraduate and Master’s degrees from Cambridge University and the University of Delhi.Ted RobertsonManaging Director -- Ted Robertson is a Managing Director at ideas42. He works on the strategy and application of behavioral science to health care, city government, and national civics. He has extensive experience across government, non-profit, and for-profit sectors transforming existing organizations as well as launching and scaling new ventures. Immediately before joining ideas42, he was a Visiting Scholar and Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government in its civic innovation practice. At HKS, he focused on the watershed nation-building process by Native American governments and the burgeoning civic technology and data-smart government space. Prior to that, he worked with the Los Angeles Transportation Authority, Bus Riders Union, and NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund to lead a data-driven redesign of the Los Angeles transit system, particularly focused on people-centered design, public health, and sustainability. He holds an MPA from the Harvard Kennedy School focused on digital management and transformation, creating innovation cultures, and business strategy, and a B.A. in History from Oberlin College.William CongdonManaging Director -- William Congdon is a Managing Director at ideas42. His work covers the application of behavioral insights to topics including public finance, labor economics, and consumer finance, with an emphasis on the role of testing and evaluation in program design. Prior to joining ideas42, he was a Research Director in the Brookings Institution’s Economic Studies program. He has previously served as the Staff Economist for education and labor at the Council of Economic Advisers. He holds a PhD in Economics from Princeton University.Andy PlewsDirector of Communications -- Andy Plews is Director of Communications for ideas42. He is responsible for driving the organization’s strategic communications to support overall growth, project development, brand and reputation. Before joining ideas42, he spent 12 years based in Toronto leading Corporate Communications, Government Relations and Community Affairs for BMO Financial Group, a North American financial services company. He joined BMO in 2002 as Vice President Corporate Communications for BMO Harris Bank in Chicago. Prior to joining BMO, Andy was Director of Media Relations for United Airlines in Chicago, responsible for the airline’s media relations strategy in North America and 26 countries around the world. In that capacity he was a key member of the airline’s executive crisis management team on 9/11. Andy serves on the Board of the Immigrant Defense Project and is a past Board member of City Year Chicago. He has a B.A. in Modern History from St John’s College, Oxford.Anthony BarrowsVice President -- Anthony Barrows is a Vice President at ideas42 where he focuses on domestic poverty, local government, post-secondary education, and civic engagement. Anthony previously worked over ten years in child welfare, spanning positions in direct service, supervision, training, advocacy, project management and system improvement. He is also a practicing artist and has led art classes and arts-oriented youth development programming. As a native Bostonian, he is also sports-obsessed and spends much of his spare time trying to convince his wife and son to care as much about the Red Sox as he does. Anthony holds a BA in Philosophy and Art from UMass Boston, an MFA in Printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute, and an MPA from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where he was a Gleitsman Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership.Ethan FletcherVice President -- Ethan Fletcher is a Vice President at ideas42. Ethan’s professional background is in technology startups, management consulting, and politics. He has co-founded and helped run three startups, including most recently serving as COO/CFO of Kandu, which aims to democratize the creation of touch-media with a product that lets kids make games and mini-apps without knowing how to code. Ethan has several years of experience in strategy, modeling, and data analysis — in both business and political settings. As a management consultant at Navigant Consulting and McKinsey & Company he built valuation, pricing-optimization, and related financial models to help Fortune Global 500 clients assess strategic choices. As a senior analyst at Washington DC-based NCEC Services, he advised Members of Congress and their legal counsel on redistricting strategy and worked with campaign managers to optimize voter contact plans. Ethan holds a BS in Civil Engineering and a BA in Economics from Tufts University and a JD from Yale Law School.Karina LorenzanaVice President -- Karina Lorenzana is a Vice President at ideas42 working on a range of international development projects in health, environment, and financial services. Prior to joining ideas42, Karina worked at the Clinton Foundation Climate Initiative and the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. Karina also served in the US Peace Corps in El Salvador. Karina graduated magna cum laude with high thesis honors from Tufts University with a BA in International Relations. She also holds an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University with a certificate in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy. When not immersed in behavioral economics and international development pursuits, Karina also acts as the resident vermiculturist and yoga instructor at ideas42.Katy DavisVice President -- Katy Davis is a Vice President at ideas42, where she specializes in economic mobility and education projects. As a student at Yale School of Management, Katy conducted research that applied insights from behavioral science to microfinance and savings products. Previously, she worked at Glass, Lewis & Co., LLC as a mergers and acquisitions analyst. She also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Okakarara, Namibia. Katy graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Reed College with a BA in Mathematics and holds an MBA from Yale School of Management. She enjoys jokes.Marina DimovaVice President -- Marina Dimova is a Vice President at ideas42. She designs, tests and scales behaviorally-informed products and programs in consumer finance, international development and financial inclusion. Her work spans projects with U.S. financial institutions aimed at improving financial management behaviors and loan repayment outcomes, as well as the scale-up of a heuristics-based financial management training for microentrepreneurs in developing countries. She also works on the design of pro-poor social programs. Prior to ideas42, Marina was an Associate Director at Ikatu International where she led the strategic research on the design of a youth employment and skills training program in West Africa. She has also worked on agricultural value chains and private sector development with the World Bank, as well as finance and healthcare consulting. Marina holds a BA in Economics and Government from Franklin & Marshall College, and an MPA degree in International Development from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. She enjoys road trips, dance, mountains and good conversations.Matthew DarlingVice President -- Matthew Darling is a Vice President at ideas42 and Teaching Fellow in Economic Design at Harvard University. He has contributed to ideas42 projects in poverty, health care, early childhood education, financial literacy, mortgage default reduction, climate change, and labor economics. Like all humans, Matt has a limited memory – he might be forgetting a few project domains. Matt graduated from Hampshire College with a self-designed concentration in economics and cognitive science, and from Tufts University with a MS in economics. He has previously worked as a consultant at Kohlberg and Associates, and as a research assistant at the Stanford Neuroeconomics Lab. In his copious free time he enjoys reading, biking and playing ultimate frisbee or board games.Will TuckerVice President -- Will Tucker is a Vice President at ideas42, where he works on household finance, consumer protection, and anti-poverty projects. Born in his grandparents’ house in Iowa, Will grew up in Iowa City and Japan. A Truman Scholar, he graduated with degrees in Africana Studies and Public Policy & American Institutions from Brown University, where he was a member of the President’s Steering Committee on Slavery and Justice. He also received an MPA from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, with a certificate in Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy. He has worked at the US Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Office of Management and Budget, as Director of the Rhode Island Urban Debate League, in public health and information technology evaluation, at the Department of Justice, and on the 2008 Obama campaign in Iowa. Able to stumble through conversations and self-deprecating jokes in Japanese and Spanish, Will has been safety-certified in forklift, jackhammer, and chainsaw operationAbigail KimSenior Associate -- Abigail Kim is a Senior Associate at ideas42. Previously, she served as a business development associate at International Relief and Development, a leading implementer of overseas development assistance. Abigail has also worked for The Management Center, an organization that helps nonprofits get better results by teaching critical management skills, and for the North East Asia field office of the International Crisis Group. In addition to fieldwork in North and Southeast Asia, she has conducted assessments in Haiti and post-revolution Egypt. Abigail holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and a BA in International Relations from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.Alex BlauSenior Associate -- Alex Blau is a Senior Associate at ideas42 currently focusing on challenges in consumer finance, design and decision-making, and international development. Prior to joining ideas42, Alex worked as a research analyst at Tufts University’s Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, examining the exit-strategies of a number of large, Title-II funded integrated nutrition interventions in Kenya. In addition, Alex has extensive experience developing agricultural supply chains for small-scale organic farmers in the Caribbean. Alex holds an MSc in food policy and applied nutrition science from Tufts University, and a BA in political science with a focus in international relations from Brown University.Allison DamingerSenior Associate -- Allison Daminger is a Senior Associate at ideas42, where she currently focuses on poverty alleviation and promoting economic mobility. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a program manager for The Food Project, a Boston-based nonprofit devoted to promoting urban agriculture and increasing access to fresh food. Allison holds a BA from Princeton University, where she majored in anthropology and global health. As a part of her studies, she conducted ethnographic research on (non)adherence to HIV/AIDS medication in Guatemala City. Outside the office, Allison can often be found cooking with obscure vegetables and exploring new neighborhoods with camera in hand.Andreana KenrickSenior Associate -- Andreana C. Kenrick is a Senior Associate at ideas42, currently working on projects to promote youth civic engagement and the financial health of low income populations. Andreana received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Princeton University, where she investigated how social processes could be harnessed to reduce prejudice and improve intergroup attitudes and interactions. While at Princeton, Andreana also served as the Health and Life Chair for the Graduate School and advocated for mental health resources on campus. Andreana holds her B.S. with Honors in psychology from Arizona State University and her M.A. in Clinical Psychology from Loyola University, Chicago, where she studied how familial and social factors influenced maladaptive eating habits and mental health outcomes over time.Andrew FertigSenior Associate -- Andrew Fertig is a Senior Associate at Ideas42. Prior to joining ideas42, Andrew was a William J. Clinton fellow with the American India Foundation where he worked on issues of professional skills development, health, and agriculture in Jharkhand, India. Passionate about sustainability and the environment, Andrew has also served as the director of a conservation biology field station in Equatorial Guinea, a research technician for the National Park Service in the Galapagos Islands, and as an expedition leader for National Geographic in various parts of South America . He holds a BA in Latin American history from Brown University.Andrew WhiteSenior Associate -- Andrew Edward White is a Senior Associate at ideas42, currently responsible for managing behavioral economics intervention projects in financial aid policy reform. Prior to joining ideas42, Andrew received his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Arizona State University where he investigated social influence, decision-making, and leadership preferences. His research has been published in both popular press outlets, such as the New York Times and Scientific American, and academic journals, such as Psychological Science and the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. While at Arizona State University, Andrew also served as a research consultant for the university’s office of Enrollment Services and Communications.Dan ConnollySenior Associate -- Dan Connolly is a Senior Associate at ideas42. His current work focuses on designing and testing behavioral interventions in consumer finance, postsecondary education, and workforce development. Prior to joining the ideas42 team, Dan worked as a research assistant at Cornell University’s Laboratory for Experimental Economics and Decision Research, as well as Cornell’s Self and Social Insight Lab, where his research examined the incentivization of objective reasoning in political judgment. Dan holds a BA in Economics and Psychology from Cornell University. He misses his tuba dearly.Dana GuichonSenior Associate -- Dana Guichon is a Senior Associate at ideas42, currently managing behavioral interventions in the fields of international development and education. Prior to joining ideas42, Dana held posts at the International Rice Research Institute, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and Oxfam America. She also served as an environmental education Peace Corps Volunteer in Senegal. Dana holds an MSc in Nutrition and an MA in International Relations from Tufts University, as well as a BA in Government from Georgetown University.Doug PalmerSenior Associate -- Doug Palmer is a Senior Associate at ideas42, where he works on projects with the City of Chicago. Prior to joining ideas42, Doug worked in budget and policy roles for various municipal governments—most recently for the City of Seattle—focusing on criminal justice, municipal finance, and transportation issues. Doug also served as an Americorps*VISTA in Boston helping low- and moderate-income people file their taxes and build assets. Doug received his BA in Political Science from the College of Wooster and an MPA from the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University. Outside of work, he’s looking forward to running along Chicago’s lakefront, refueling with deep-dish pizzas, and watching the Cubs scrap together a few winning seasons.Elizabeth LongSenior Associate -- Elizabeth Long is a Senior Associate at ideas42. Prior to joining ideas42, she worked with the I4 Index Insurance Innovation Initiative, having previously managed a clinical trial for Harvard School of Public Health in Tanzania. With her background in health and economic development, she has worked with USAID/Tanzania, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, and the Public Health Institute. She earned a BA from Johns Hopkins University, an MA from University of San Francisco, and an MS from University of California, Davis. In her spare time she analyzes performances in the Premier League and dreams up ways to meet (or become) the manager of Chelsea FC.Hannah SpringSenior Associate -- Hannah Spring is a Senior Associate at ideas42, where she manages international health projects. Hannah’s interest in behavioral economics was sparked while she was an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina studying water, sanitation and hygiene. This interest led her to pursue an MSPH from The University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Global Public Health. As a graduate student she worked with The Water Institute at UNC and led a multi-country study on perceptions related to drinking water and health. Prior to joining ideas42, Hannah designed and implemented a behavior change campaign nested within a water, sanitation, hygiene and nutrition randomized controlled trial with Innovations for Poverty Action in Kenya. Hannah prefers impromptu dinner parties to Manhattan restaurants and running with podcasts to running with music.Hyunsoo ChangSenior Associate -- Hyunsoo Chang is a Senior Associate at ideas42. His work at ideas42 has focused on consumer finance and economic mobility, as well applying behavioral science within the federal government. Previously he was a Research Assistant at the Department of Business Economics and Finance at USC’s Marshall School of Business, where he worked on various projects mainly in the fields of Behavioral Finance/Economics, Health Economics, and Industrial Organization. He holds a BA in Economics and Political Science from Amherst College.Jessica LeiferSenior Associate -- Jessica Leifer is a Senior Associate at ideas42, where she focuses on issues in early childhood development and education. Prior to joining ideas42, Jess completed a Masters in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. She previously worked as a fellow at the Centre for Impact Investing, where she designed a technical assistance program for nonprofit organizations interested in developing social impact bond programs. Her experience includes analyzing student and school performance at Success Academy Charter Schools as well as partnering with the New York City government to provide special education supports for students in need. As an undergraduate, Jess conducted research on self-control and willpower with Dr. Angela Duckworth. She has a BA in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania.Jiyoung HanSenior Associate -- Jiyoung Han is a Senior Associate at ideas42. She previously served in the Korean Presidential Committee team that founded the G20′s Development Agenda and its Business Summit. She also worked with the GAVI Alliance, a public-private partnership that increases access to vaccines for children in low-income countries. Her field experiences in development include supporting conflict resolution and social inclusion programs in Nepal, as well as harnessing behavioral insights to improve program impacts in Kenya. Jiyoung has studied at the Harvard Kennedy School, the University of Chicago, and Sciences Po Paris. She likes hikes and bikes.Jonathan HayesSenior Associate -- Jonathan Hayes is a Senior Associate at ideas42 currently working on poverty alleviation and economic mobility. He previously served as a Teach For America corps member and taught tenth grade global history in Brooklyn, NY. Jonathan earned a BS in Psychology and a BA in Sociology from the University of Utah. He also holds an MPA with a certificate in Urban Policy and Planning from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. His policy interests include urban poverty, social justice, and education. Outside of work he likes to read fiction, browse stationery stores, and binge-watch television shows.Josh MartinSenior Associate -- Josh Martin is a Senior Associate at ideas42, currently responsible for managing behavioral economics intervention projects in the fields of financial aid reform and international cash transfer programs. Prior to joining ideas42, Josh was a policy advisor in Côte d’Ivoire’s Ministry of Planning and Development, having previously held posts at Cordoba Initiative and Princeton University’s Empirical Studies of Conflict program in addition to consulting roles at the World Bank, USAID, the National Democratic Institute, and others. With an MPP from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Josh’s policy research has included works on microfinance, conflict dynamics and governance in developing countries. Josh speaks fluent Arabic and French, and barely enough Farsi to order his favorite kebabs.Ruirui KuangSenior Associate -- Ruirui Kuang is a Senior Associate at ideas42, where she works on behavioral research and intervention design for disadvantaged populations in the US and the developing world. Previously, Ruirui was awarded the Idea Translation Lab Fellowship to pursue an entrepreneurship project focused on developing scent-based learning tools for children with dyslexia. She was also a Finalist in the President’s Challenge, an entrepreneurship and social impact competition sponsored by the Harvard Innovation Lab and President Drew Faust. Her senior thesis focused on the social significance of representations of women in Shanghai’s print media in the 1920s-30s. She has also done research on topics such as the potential of smartphone applications to combat drunk driving and the influence of architecture on the formation of social networks. She holds a BA in History from Harvard.Sarah WelchSenior Associate -- Sarah Welch is a Senior Associate at ideas42, where she is currently working on behavioral innovations in sustainability, consumer finance, and health. Prior to joining ideas42, Sarah completed a three-year dual degree program at Yale’s School of Management and School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, where she focused on urban resource management and planning. Her experience includes analyzing global water technology markets in Europe, strategic planning with The Nature Conservancy in Colombia, and collaboration with Yale’s Urban Ecological Design Lab in Connecticut. Sarah previously led ecological design and restoration work at environmental consulting firm Great Ecology. Sarah holds an MBA and an MEM from Yale and received her BA in Environmental Science & Public Policy from Harvard. She’d take cheese over cake any day.Abi WarrenAssociate -- Abi Warren is an Associate at ideas42. Prior to joining the team, Abi researched social integration challenges faced by migrant farmworkers in upstate New York and led an outreach program providing English instruction to farmworkers. At Cornell University she worked as a research assistant, investigating paradoxes in global finance and the reign of the dollar as the world’s dominant reserve currency. Her international work experiences include teaching English in southern India and Spain and dairy farming in Ecuador. Abi is a former synchronized swimmer, but now sticks to dancing outside of the water. She received a BA in Economics from Cornell University with a minor in Spanish.Alex AlhadeffAssociate -- Alex Alhadeff is an Associate at ideas42. She holds a Master's in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. While at Yale, she conducted experiments with approximately 150 teens that explored the psychological effects of environmental degradation and examined environmentally responsible behavior through the lens of behavioral economics. Prior to graduate school, Alex was an experienced associate in KPMG's Risk Consulting practice where she conducted IT Sarbanes-Oxley audits for Fortune 100 companies. She graduated cum laude with a B.S. in Business and Economics from Lehigh University. Alex is a TCK (Third Culture Kid), theatre enthusiast, salsa dancer, and avid surfer.Arielle KoppellAssociate -- Arielle Koppell is an Associate at ideas42. Her current work involves applying behavioral science to hunger and malnutrition issues in Florida and facilitating better employment opportunities for community college graduates across the country. She graduated from Cornell University, with a BS in Industrial and Labor Relations and special honors as a Global Scholar. Arielle spent a full year of study at Oxford University, where she researched human trafficking trends in West Africa for the US State Department and conducted experiments testing the psychological impacts of scarcity on low-income single parents. In her free time, Arielle enjoys competitive debate, writing fiction, volunteering, and exploring cafés across New York City.Christina AvellanAssociate -- Christina Avellan is an Associate at ideas42. She holds a BA in Sociology from Yale, and an MA in Psychological Counseling from New York University, where she specialized in mental health intervention design. At NYU, Christina contributed to the design and facilitation of a city-wide therapy program in juvenile detention centers. Christina is a trained therapist, and previously served as a crisis family counselor for the Juvenile Justice Initiative. She worked as a Teach for America Corps member in Brooklyn, where she taught special education and Math. She is a former opera singer, an avid crafter, and a soft pretzel aficionado.Dani GrodskyAssociate -- Dani Grodsky is an Associate at Ideas42. Currently, her focus is on improving student outcomes throughout postsecondary education by applying a behavioral lens. She recently graduated from Brown University, where she majored in Cognitive Neuroscience with a smaller focus on Economics. She also has experience in science communication and event planning, writing for the Brown Medical School magazine and TED.com, and helping to organize the annual TEDxProvidence conference. Her quirkiest job was working at a bridal shop featured on reality television, and if she had an alter ego she would be a makeup artist for runway shows.David Munguía GómezAssociate -- David Munguía Gómez is an Associate at ideas42 currently working on improving student outcomes at the post-secondary level. He holds a BA in Psychology from Princeton University, where he investigated how metaphors influence interpersonal perception and assisted with research on ageism and concrete versus abstract thinking. Born in Mexico, David enjoys pick-up fútbol and broadening his cooking repertoire.DJ NeriAssociate -- DJ Neri is an Associate as ideas42. He holds an MSc in Economics with a specialization in Behavioral Economics and Game Theory from the University of Amsterdam. While at the UvA, he conducted experiments on the effects of modified payoff structures on cooperation in repeated prisoner’s dilemmas and on the effects of asymmetric information in hard-close English auctions. Prior to graduate school, DJ was an Analyst at Maple Life Financial LexServ in Bethesda, MD and graduated with a BA in Economics from Gettysburg College. In his free time he enjoys reading, photography, and being far too emotionally invested in the success of his Boston sports teams.Jaclyn LefkowitzAssociate -- Jaclyn Lefkowitz is an Associate at ideas42 currently working on projects applying behavioral theory to labor economics and consumer finance. Prior to joining ideas42, Jaclyn served as a Research Assistant in both the Department of Psychology and the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. Her research focused on topics such as Hispanic bilingual advertising and consumer behavior in the food service industry. Jaclyn holds a BA in Psychology and Spanish from Cornell University.Jill BerardiniAssociate -- Jill Berardini is an Associate at ideas42. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a consultant in Deloitte's federal government practice, where she focused on health and consumer finance projects. Jill holds a BA from Princeton University in health policy. As a part of her research, she examined the behavioral implications of state Health Insurance Exchange design. In her free time, Jill enjoys trying new recipes, playing trivia, and trying to get off at all the New York subway stops.Kanyinsola AibanaAssociate -- Kanyinsola Aibana is an Associate at ideas42. Prior to joining ideas42, Kanyinsola studied Mandarin Chinese at Fudan University and worked in the early childhood education program and legal department of a social services agency. She holds a BA in Psychology from Harvard College, where she worked as a Research Assistant at the Harvard Business School Decision Making and Negotiation Lab. In her free time, Kanyinsola enjoys reading novels and manga.Michael SternAssociate -- Michael Stern is an Associate at ideas42, where he focuses on issues in education and agriculture. Prior to ideas42, Michael worked in EdTech for the start-up BrightBytes, where he researched data platforms, and for the social gaming company Zynga, where he piloted innovation projects. He also researched topics relating to inter-temporal choice in the Stanford Decision Neuroscience Lab. When he isn’t using behavioral science to overanalyze his life, Michael tries to get as far into the wilderness as possible to backpack, climb and ski. One day, he hopes to own, design and manage his own coffee shop. Michael holds a B.S. from Stanford University in Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Decision Making and Rationality.Nicki CohenAssociate -- Nicki Cohen is an Associate at ideas42 currently working on designing scalable financial products for the underbanked and improving student outcomes through several financial aid interventions. Prior to joining the ideas42 team, Nicki worked at The Boston Consulting Group in Chicago where she advised clients on a wide range of strategic problems. Nicki holds a BA in Cognitive Science from Yale University, where she researched the evolutionary origins of economic behaviors through experiments with capuchin monkeys. In her free time, Nicki enjoys reading science fiction in hammocks and exploring the city by foot, bike, rollerblade, and long-board.Rahin KhandkerAssociate -- Rahin Khandker is an Associate at ideas42. Previously, she worked at Innovations for Poverty Action managing randomized evaluations for several health interventions in Bangladesh. She also worked in Nepal under a joint study conducted by Stanford University and Vanderbilt University, where she collaborated closely with radio studios, graphic novelists and local NGOs to develop large-scale public awareness campaigns targeting human trafficking in the country. Born and raised in Gainesville, Florida, Rahin is a Florida Gator fan and enjoys swamplands. She holds an MPA in International Development from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.Rich DakerAssociate -- Rich Daker is an Associate at ideas42 currently working on projects aimed at increasing financial inclusion in low-income communities and facilitating achievement and continued enrollment in postsecondary education. Before joining the team at ideas42, Rich worked in multiple psychology research labs at Princeton that studied topics ranging from intergroup relations to working memory. His own research focused on understanding the mechanisms by which stereotypes can affect academic performance. Rich graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with a BA in Psychology and a certificate in Neuroscience.Teis JorgensenAssociate -- Teis Jorgensen is an Associate at ideas42. His work focuses on consumer finance and applying behavioral economics to family planning and reproductive health. Teis has worked as a research assistant to Professor Todd Rogers, Harvard Kennedy School, and Professor Mahzarin Banaji, Harvard Department of Psychology. He has done research on a diverse range of topics including environmental consumerism, institutional corruption, and the value of a reminder. He has a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Harvard College. In his free time, Teis writes children’s poetry and performs improvisational comedy.Vivien CaetanoAssociate -- Vivien Caetano is an Associate at ideas42. Prior to joining ideas42, she worked as a Research Assistant at the Harvard Kennedy School. In her research, she gained experience applying behavioral economics to water consumption decisions in California, overconfidence in professionals, and altruism. Vivien holds a BA in Economics from Brown University, where she also applied behavioral science to her role as a writing coach. In addition to coaching students in traditional writing and revision strategies, Vivien would teach students how to use behavioral concepts like limited attention and framing to improve their writing. In her free time, Vivien enjoys social dancing and listening to podcasts. She also loves plain yogurt a little too much.Mitra SalaselSenior Communications Associate -- Mitra Salasel is the Senior Communications Associate at ideas42, where she focuses on leading the overarching communications and public relations work of the organization. She came to ideas42 from the political arena in Texas, where she spent several years crafting and executing communications infrastructures for campaigns and political action committees. Her work was largely focused on narrowing the gender representation gap through increasing female participation at all levels of the political process. Mitra holds a BS in Political Science from St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. When she is not obsessively combing through her Twitter feeds, Mitra is counting the days until pomegranate season.Hannah Furstenberg-BeckmanProject Manager -- Hannah Furstenberg-Beckman is a Project Manager at ideas42. Prior to joining ideas42, she worked with court-involved youth at The Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services. Passionate about youth issues and education, Hannah has also worked as a Drop-Out Prevention Counselor at a high school in Brooklyn and as a teacher at a bilingual school in Spain. During her year of service with AmeriCorps, she worked as a Legal Advocate at the New York Legal Assistance Group. Hannah graduated from Wesleyan University with a BA in psychology. Originally from Philadelphia, she is still searching New York City for a suitable cheesesteak.Mukta JoshiProject Manager -- Mukta Joshi is a Project Manager at ideas42. A development economist by training, Mukta has extensive experience in applied research across multiple disciplines (development finance and private sector development) and geographies (North America, South Asia, Middle East and North Africa). Prior to joining ideas42, Mukta worked with the World Bank and International Finance Corporation (IFC) in Washington DC. At the World Bank, Mukta was responsible for conducting research on financial access for small and medium enterprises (SME) and households in South Asia. At the IFC, Mukta was one of the lead contributors to G-20 SME Finance Stocktaking Report published at the G-20 Seoul Summit 2010. Mukta holds a Ph.D. in Development Economics from Ohio State University and a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Economics from Mumbai University in India.Maria PisanoFinance Manager -- Maria Pisano is the Finance Manager at ideas42, where she assists with the day to day operations of the organization, adding to the financial and administrative capacity. Prior to joining ideas42, Maria was an Assistant Vice President at the Royal Bank of Scotland. In that position, she supported the day to day work of the equities trading desk. Her responsibilities included preparing daily profit and loss reports, daily balance sheets, and managing the monthly and yearly close of books. Maria has an MBA from Baruch College at The City University of New York and a BA from New York University’s Stern School of Business.Scott StinsonOffice Managerideas42 BoardAntoinette SchoarAntoinette Schoar is a Scientific Director at ideas42. She is also an Academic Research Council Member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Additionally, she is the Michael M. Koerner (49’) Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She has been teaching at Sloan in the areas of corporate finance and entrepreneurship. Antoinette holds a Ph.D. is in Economics from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate degree from the University of Cologne, Germany. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Finance and the American Economic Journal in Applied Economics. Antoinette’s current research examines returns and capital flows in the venture capital industry, financing of SMEs and start up firms in emerging markets and the impact of corporate governance practices on firm performance. Her paper “The Effects of Corporate Diversification on Productivity” won the 2003 Journal of Finance Brattle Prize. She also received the prestigious Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship in 2009. She has published numerous papers in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Her work has been featured in the Economist, the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.Diana TaylorDiana Taylor joined Wolfensohn Fund Management L.P., a strategic consulting and investment firm, in 2007, prior to which she served as New York State superintendent of banks and chairwoman of the New York State Banking Board. Before her government service, she worked in the private sector as vice president for KeySpan Energy and as an investment banker with Smith Barney, Lehman Brothers and Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette. Diana serves on the boards of Citigroup, Brookfield Properties and Sotheby’s. She also serves on several charitable boards. She chairs the boards of ACCION International, Hudson River Park Trust, New York Women’s Foundation and the YMCA of Greater New York. Other memberships include Dartmouth College, the Mailman School of Public Health and the International Women’s Health Coalition. She is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Economic Club of New York. She earned her AB from Dartmouth College, her MBA from the Columbia School of Business, and her MPH from the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia.Eldar ShafirEldar Shafir is a Scientific Director at ideas42. He is the William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and has served as a member of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability. He studies decision-making and judgment, and his recent work has focused on behavioral economic analyses of decision-making in the context of poverty and, more generally, on the application of behavioral research to policy. He recently edited a volume on “The Behavioral Foundations of Policy,” and has just co-authored a book with Sendhil Mullainathan called “Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much“, which looks at how scarcity, and our flawed responses to it, can shape our lives, our society, and our culture.Matt RyanMatt Ryan is the global CEO of The United Network, the creatively driven micro-network owned by WPP. The agency, whose hub is Berlin Cameron United in NY, is known for leveraging popular culture on behalf of clients and their brands. Prior to his current positions with the agency, Matt was Co-Chairman of Havas Worldwide New York and President of Global Brands at Havas Worldwide. He joined Havas from sister agency Arnold Worldwide, where he served as EVP and Executive Director and led the agency’s winning team in the global Volvo review. Early in his career, Matt worked in account management at several agencies including Doyle Dane Bernbach (Popeye’s), Ally & Gargano (MCI), and Lord, Geller, Federico, Einstein/Lord, Einstein, O’Neill (Chase, Northrop, Prince Tennis, Dow Jones). In 1990, Matt founded the integrated agency Ryan, Drossman & Partners, Inc., a pioneer in digital and new technologies that launched lasting digital brands including MovieFone (777-FILM), SportsLine.com, TheStreet.com, Verio, Cantor Fitzgerald’s eSpeed, European Business News (WSJ), and S WBIS (Dow Jones and Cablevision). Matt ran the business for 10 years. Drawn to the “first” digital revolution, Matt founded and was CEO of the publicly traded Change Technology Partners and led the team through 12 acquisitions in a 14 month period. Later, he became Executive Vice President and Partner, at the communications management consultancy Roth Associates, where he managed advertising and media agency searches for leading national and global advertisers such as Ford (Jaguar), Toyota, and Shell. Matt is a member of the Board of Directors of the Advertising Education Foundation. Matt graduated from Syracuse University with a BA in Political Science and a BS in Newspaper Journalism.Melissa L. BradleyMelissa L. Bradley has more than 20 years of entrepreneurship, investment and leadership experience. She is a Professor of Practice at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University where she teaches impact investing, social entrepreneurship, P2P economies and innovation. Melissa also serves as a faculty advisor for the Social Venture Lab and runs experiential learning opportunities for students across the entire University. Previously Melissa served as the Chief Strategy Officer at the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). As a presidential appointee, Melissa successfully revised the CNCS four-year strategic plan, completed a feasibility study for a congressionally chartered foundation, and served as the policy lead on the Performance Partnerships Pilot for Disconnected Youth (P3). She was responsible for securing over $15M of public and private sector partnerships to support the President’s Task Force on Expanding National Service in one year; this included securing the largest corporate sponsored AmeriCorps program with the Citi Foundation with an investment of $10M. Melissa also served as a member of a cross-agency team to develop and draft the NOFO for an $11M Pay for Success pilot, the second largest offered by the federal government. During her tenure at CNCS, Melissa was detailed to the Department of Education to continue her work in support of the President’s My Brother’s Keeper Initiative, designed to bring attention to, and support for decreasing, the disparities facing boys and young men of color. As part of the launch of the President’s initiative, Melissa has authored the chapter on mentoring, launched the national engagement call to action for mentors, served as agency lead on the interagency task force, and identified public-private partnerships to support this important work which included a $13M commitment from AT&T. Before joining CNCS, Melissa served as Chief Executive Officer of Tides, a network of entities committed to helping donors and doers create a better world. As the first professional CEO she managed over 120 staff in four locations with an annual budget over $20 million. Under Melissa’s leadership, the organization doubled the number of donors in one year and generated the highest contributions since 2000. Melissa’s corporate experience includes her role as Director of Investment Services at CIT GAP Funds, which provides seed-stage equity investments in Virginia-based technology and life science companies. She also served as Vice President at UBS in the Private Client Group, where she was responsible for developing and releasing online properties to increase wallet share from high net-worth clients. Melissa currently serves as an Advisor to Renewal 2 Investment Fund. She also holds board positions with Aeris, and the Office Depot Foundation. She serves as an Advisor to Wallet AI, the Center for the Advancement of Social Enterprise (CASE) at Duke University, LGBTQ Center at Georgetown University and Founding Advisor to the Dell Center for Entrepreneurs. She is also Founder and Former Chair of the Georgetown Entrepreneurship Alliance and served as a board member on the Georgetown University Board of Governors for more than 10 years. Melissa’s educational background includes graduation from Georgetown University in 1989 with a bachelor’s of science degree in Finance from the School of Business, and a master’s degree in Business Administration in Marketing from American University in 1993.Nigel MorrisNigel Morris is the managing partner of QED Investors, a direct investment fund focused on high growth companies that leverage the power of data strategies. In addition, he works in an advisory capacity with General Atlantic Partners and Oliver Wyman Consulting. He serves on the board of numerous for profit companies, including TransUnion, Red Ventures, Network Solutions, Prosper, Clearspring Technologies, Media Math, and Mobile Posse. He is also on the board of the Brookings Institution, National Geographic Ventures, and the London Business School. Previously, Nigel co-founded Capital One Financial Services in 1994. Under Nigel’s leadership, Capital One pioneered an information-based strategy that fundamentally transformed the consumer lending industry. Combining advanced statistical marketing techniques with nascent information technologies, the company reduced costs to conventional borrowers, extended capital to overlooked consumers, expanded internationally, and produced extraordinary returns for investors. During Nigel’s ten-year tenure, Capital One’s sales grew at a compound annual rate of more than 40%. Over this same decade, earnings per share growth and return on equity both exceeded 20% per year, a financial performance attained by only a handful of American companies. Upon his retirement in 2004, Capital One’s 15,000 employees across the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom managed over $80 billion of loans for 50 million customers. Generating over $1.5 billion in earnings, Capital One had successfully transitioned from an emerging start up into an established public company valued at over $20 billion. Nigel has a BSC in Psychology from the East London University and a MBA with distinction from London Business School, where he is also a Fellow. Nigel lives with his wife and four children in Virginia.Paul BrestPaul Brest is Former Dean and Professor Emeritus (active), at Stanford Law School, a lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, a faculty co-director of the Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, and co-director of the Stanford Law and Policy Lab. He was president of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 2000-2012. He is co-author of Money Well Spent: A Strategic Guide to Smart Philanthropy (2008),Problem Solving, Decision Making, and Professional Judgment (2010),and articles on constitutional law, philanthropy, and impact investing. His current courses include Problem Solving for Public Policy and Social Change, Measuring and Improving Social Impact, and Advanced Topics in Philanthropy and Impact Investing. He also is the instructor in an online course, Essentials of Nonprofit Strategy, offered by Philanthropy University. Professor Brest is a fellow in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and holds honorary degrees from Northwestern University School of Law and Swarthmore College. Before joining the Stanford Law School faculty in 1969, he clerked for Judge Bailey Aldrich of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit and Justice John M. Harlan of the U.S. Supreme Court, and did civil rights litigation with the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund in Mississippi.Peter R. OrszagPeter R. Orszag is Vice Chairman of Global Banking at Citigroup, Inc. and a member of the Senior Strategic Advisory Group there. He is also a Contributing Columnist at Bloomberg View and an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. Prior to joining Citigroup in January 2011, he served as a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a Contributing Columnist at the New York Times. Dr. Orszag previously served as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget in the Obama Administration from January 2009 until July 2010, having been confirmed by the Senate on January 20, 2009. In that Cabinet-level role, he oversaw the Administration’s budget policy, coordinated the implementation of major policy initiatives throughout the federal government, and reviewed federal regulatory action, among other responsibilities. From January 2007 to December 2008, Dr. Orszag was the Director of the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), supervising the agency’s work in providing objective, nonpartisan, and timely analyses of economic and budgetary issues. Under his leadership, the agency significantly expanded its focus on areas such as health care and climate change. Before joining CBO, Dr. Orszag was the Joseph A. Pechman Senior Fellow and Deputy Director of Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution. While at Brookings, he also served as Director of The Hamilton Project; Director of the Retirement Security Project; and Codirector of the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture with the Urban Institute. In previous government service, Dr. Orszag served as Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and as Senior Economic Adviser at the National Economic Council during 1997 and 1998. He had earlier served as a staff economist and then Senior Adviser and Senior Economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. Dr. Orszag graduated summa cum laude in economics from Princeton University and obtained an M.Sc. and a Ph.D. in economics from the London School of Economics, which he attended as a Marshall Scholar. He has coauthored or coedited a number of books, including Protecting the Homeland 2006/7 (2006), Aging Gracefully: Ideas to Improve Retirement Security in America (2006), Saving Social Security: A Balanced Approach (2004), and American Economic Policy in the 1990s (2002). Dr. Orszag is a member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) of the National Academies of Sciences.ideas42 AdvisorsAntoinette SchoarAntoinette Schoar is a Scientific Director at ideas42. She is also an Academic Research Council Member of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Additionally, she is the Michael M. Koerner (49’) Professor of Entrepreneurial Finance at the MIT Sloan School of Management. She has been teaching at Sloan in the areas of corporate finance and entrepreneurship. Antoinette holds a Ph.D. is in Economics from the University of Chicago and an undergraduate degree from the University of Cologne, Germany. She is an associate editor of the Journal of Finance and the American Economic Journal in Applied Economics. Antoinette’s current research examines returns and capital flows in the venture capital industry, financing of SMEs and start up firms in emerging markets and the impact of corporate governance practices on firm performance. Her paper “The Effects of Corporate Diversification on Productivity” won the 2003 Journal of Finance Brattle Prize. She also received the prestigious Kauffman Prize Medal for Distinguished Research in Entrepreneurship in 2009. She has published numerous papers in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics. Her work has been featured in the Economist, the Financial Times, the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.Anuj ShahAnuj Shah is a member of ideas42′s Scientific Advisory Board. He is an Assistant Professor of Behavioral Science at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He studies how changes in basic cognitive processes can give rise to more complex behaviors. Recently, he has focused on how people behave when they experience different forms of resource scarcity (whether money, time, or otherwise). He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University.Daniel KahnemanDaniel Kahneman is a Senior Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He is also Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs Emeritus at the Woodrow Wilson School, the Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University, and a fellow of the Center for Rationality at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Dr. Kahneman has held the position of professor of psychology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1970‐1978), the University of British Columbia (1978‐1986), and the University of California, Berkeley (1986‐1994). Dr. Kahneman is a member of the National Academy of Science, the Philosophical Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the American Psychological Association, the American Psychological Society, the Society of Experimental Psychologists, and the Econometric Society. He has been the recipient of many awards, among them the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association (1982) and the Grawemeyer Prize (2002), both jointly with Amos Tversky, the Warren Medal of the Society of Experimental Psychologists (1995), the Hilgard Award for Career Contributions to General Psychology (1995), the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences (2002), and the Lifetime Contribution Award of the American Psychological Association (2007). Dr. Kahneman holds honorary degrees from numerous Universities.Eldar ShafirEldar Shafir is a Scientific Director at ideas42. He is the William Stewart Tod Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University, and has served as a member of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability. He studies decision-making and judgment, and his recent work has focused on behavioral economic analyses of decision-making in the context of poverty and, more generally, on the application of behavioral research to policy. He recently edited a volume on “The Behavioral Foundations of Policy,” and has just co-authored a book with Sendhil Mullainathan called “Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much“, which looks at how scarcity, and our flawed responses to it, can shape our lives, our society, and our culture.Elizabeth Levy PaluckElizabeth Levy Paluck (Betsy) is a member of ideas42′s Scientific Advisory Board. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She conducts field experiments in the United States and Africa to test initiatives for prejudice and conflict reduction and political education and civic engagement. Her work has focused on the effects of the mass media, education, and interpersonal communication. She received her Ph.D. from Yale University.George AkerlofGeorge Akerlof is Senior Resident Scholar at the IMF since 2010 and Koshland Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Akerlof studied at Yale University (B.A., 1962) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1966). In 1966 he began teaching at the University of California, Berkeley, becoming Goldman Professor of Economics in 1980. His research often drew from other disciplines, including psychology, anthropology, and sociology, and he played an important role in the development of behavioral economics. In 2001 he was co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences along with A. Michael Spence and Joseph Stiglitz . The Nobel Committee cited Akerlof’s 1970 paper, “The Market for ‘Lemons,’” which for the first time described the role of asymmetric information in causing market perversity. A vicious circle in used car markets illustrates the phenomenon. Potential sellers of used cars, with their superior information, withhold good cars from the market; buyers react by reducing the price they are willing to pay; and in turn sellers further reduce the quality of cars put up for sale. Dr. Akerlof has also pioneered in the application of sociology and psychology to the workings of the macro-economy, and recently published, with Robert Shiller, Animal Spirits: How Human Psychology Drives the Economy and Why It Matters for Global Capitalism, and with Rachel Kranton, Identity Economics: How Our Identities Shape Our Work, Wages, and Well-Being. Dr. Akerlof has been senior economist at the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, and past president, vice president and member of the executive committee of the American Economics Association, and member of the Council of the Econometric Society. He is a trustee of the Economists for Peace and Security, and co-director of the Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being program at Canadian Institute for Advanced Research.Hunt AllcottHunt Allcott is a Scientific Director at ideas42. He is an Assistant Professor of Economics at New York University. His research centers on consumer behavior, business strategy, and regulatory policy in energy markets. He holds a Ph.D. from Harvard University and has worked as an economist at the World Bank and ICICI Bank and as a consultant with Cambridge Energy Research AssociatesJens LudwigJens Ludwig is the McCormick Foundation Professor of Social Service Administration, Law, and Public Policy and Director of the Crime Lab at the University of Chicago, Non-Resident Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution, Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and co-director of the NBER’s Working Group on the Economics of Crime. Ludwig has been involved for the past dozen years with the evaluation of a large HUD-funded housing-mobility experiment known as Moving to Opportunity (MTO), which includes a major demonstration site on the south side of Chicago. He is also one of the nation’s leading gun policy researchers, whose publications on the topic include Gun Violence: The Real Costs with Philip Cook (Oxford, 2000) and Evaluating Gun Policy, co-edited with Cook (Brookings, 2003). In 2006 he was awarded the David Kershaw Prize by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management for distinguished contributions to public policy by the age of 40.Katherine BaickerKatherine Baicker is a Scientific Director at ideas42. She is Professor of Health Economics in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is also a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. From 2005-2007, Katherine served as a Senate-confirmed Member of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, where she played a leading role in the development of health policy. She currently serves on the Editorial Board of Health Affairs, as a Commissioner on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America, and on the Institute of Medicine’s Committee on Health Insurance Status and its Consequences. Her research focuses primarily on the factors that drive the distribution, generosity, and effectiveness of public and private health insurance, with a particular focus on health insurance finance and the effect of reforms on the distribution and quality of care. Her research has been published in journals such as Health Affairs, the Journal of Public Economics, and the Quarterly Journal of Economics, and has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and on National Public Radio.Manuel AdelinoManuel Adelino is an expert in consumer finance. His research focuses on household, corporate and real estate finance. He is an Assistant Professor of Finance at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business and an advisor to ideas42. He received a Ph.D. in Financial Economics from MIT Sloan School of Management.Michael S. BarrMichael S. Barr is a member of ideas42′s Scientific Advisory Board. He is a professor of law at the University of Michigan Law School, where he teaches Financial Institutions and International Finance, among other courses. Barr is also a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress and the Brookings Institution. Barr was on leave from 2009-2010, serving as the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for Financial Institutions. He was a key architect of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. As an academic, Barr conducts large-scale empirical research regarding financial services and low- and moderate-income households and researches and writes about a wide range of issues in financial regulation. He is author of No Slack: The Financial Lives of Low-Income Americans (Brookings Press, 2012), and the co-editor of Insufficient Funds (Russell Sage, 2009, with Blank), and Building Inclusive Financial Systems (Brookings Press, 2007, with Kumar and Litan). Other recent publications include An Opt-Out Home Mortgage System, Behaviorally Informed Financial Services Regulation, Third-Party Tax Administration, An Inclusive Progressive National Savings and Financial Services Policy, Credit Where it Counts, Banking the Poor, Microfinance and Financial Development, and Global Administrative Law: The View from Basel. He previously served as Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin’s Special Assistant, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, as Special Advisor to President William J. Clinton, as a special advisor and counselor on the policy planning staff at the State Department, and as a law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter and Judge Pierre N. Leval, then of the Southern District of New York. Barr received his J.D. from Yale Law School, his M.Phil. in international relations from Magdalen College, Oxford University, as a Rhodes Scholar, and his B.A., summa cum laude, with honors in history, from Yale University.Richard H. ThalerRichard H. Thaler is a member of ideas42′s Scientific Advisory Board. He is the Ralph and Dorothy Keller Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics and the director of the Center for Decision Research at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business. Originally from New Jersey, Thaler attended Case Western Reserve University where he received a bachelor’s degree in 1967. Soon after, he attended the University of Rochester where he received a master’s degree in 1970 and a Ph.D. in 1974. Before joining the University of Chicago faculty in 1995, Thaler taught at the University of Rochester and Cornell as well as visiting stints at The University of British Columbia, the Sloan School of Management at MIT, the Russell Sage Foundation and the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. Thaler studies behavioral economics and finance as well as the psychology of decision-making which lies in the gap between economics and psychology. His column, Anomalies, in the Journal of Economic Perspectives, brought the first sustained attention to many phenomena unexplained by conventional economic theory. His articles documented how phenomena such as risk aversion, cooperation in the Prisoner’s Dilemma, rejection in the Ultimatum game, and international trade could not plausibly be explained without relaxing the standard assumptions of rationality and selfishness. Thaler is the co-author (with Cass R. Sunstein) of the global best seller Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness, in which the concepts of behavioral economics are used to tackle many of society’s major problems. He is a regular contributor to the Economic View column of The New York Times and has published a number of articles in prominent journals such as the American Economics Review, the Journal of Finance and the Journal of Political Economy. He has authored or edited four other books: Quasi-Rational Economics, The Winner’s Curse: Paradoxes and Anomalies of Economic Life, and Advances in Behavioral Finance (editor) Volumes I and II. Thaler is an adviser to British Prime Minister David Cameron’s Behavioural Insight Team, a member of the American Academy of Arts and the co-director (with Robert Shiller) of the NBER project on behavioral economics. He has served as Vice President of the American Economics Association and was elected a Fellow of the American Finance Association.Sendhil MullainathanSendhil Mullainathan is a Scientific Adviser at ideas42. He is also a Professor of Economics at Harvard, is a recipient of a MacArthur Foundation “genius grant” and conducts research on development economics, behavioral economics, and corporate finance. His research helps bring an understanding of the psychology of scarcity, with the end goal of improving poverty alleviation programs in the U.S. and in developing countries.Todd RogersTodd Rogers is a Scientific Director at ideas42. He is an Assistant Professor of Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. Todd is a behavioral scientist who tries to understand and influence socially consequential problems. His research attempts to bridge the gap between intention and action. Some topics he has studied include the cognitive and social factors that influence election participation (e.g., get-out-the-vote activities informed by psychological insights), and how time-inconsistent preferences can be leveraged to increase support for future-minded policies and choices (e.g., support for environmental legislation, ordering healthier foods, and watching high-brow movies). His recent work develops and tests behavioral science informed interventions in classrooms. Prior to joining the faculty at HKS he was founding Executive Director of the Analyst Institute, LLC, which uses randomized field experiments and behavioral science insights to understand and improve voter communication programs. Todd was named a Rising Star by Politics Magazine for his work in the 2008 election cycle, and a 40 under 40 award winner by New Leaders Council for leadership in politics. He received his Ph.D. jointly from Harvard’s department of Psychology and Harvard Business School, and received his B.A. from Williams College.ideas42 AffiliatesAbigail SussmanAdam S. LevineAlison ButtenheimAnandi ManiAngela DuckworthAnnamaria LusardiAntoinette SchoarAnuj ShahAriel KalilBanny BannerjeeBaruch FischhoffBen CastlemanBrian WansinkBrigitte MadrianCass SunsteinChristine JollsCraig FoxCrystal HallDaniel BenjaminDaniel KahnemanDavid I. LaibsonDean KarlanDean YangDeborah PrenticeDerek KoehlerDevin PopeDiana TaylorDilip SomanDonald RedelmeierEldar ShafirElizabeth Levy PaluckElke U. WeberEric JohnsonEugene M. CarusoFrancesca GinoGeoff CohenGeorge AkerlofGeorge LoewensteinHeather CarusoHunt AllcottJens LudwigJohannes HaushoferJonathan ZinmanJustin SydnorKatherine BaickerKatherine MilkmanMahzarin BanajiMara MatherMargaret McConnellMarieke HuysentruytMatt RyanMax BazermanMelissa L. BradleyMichael D. GrubbMichael LucaMichael NortonMichael S. BarrNava AshrafNicholas EpleyNigel MorrisPaul BrestPaul FerraroPaul SlovicPeter R. OrszagPhilip OreopoulosPhoebe EllsworthPiyush TantiaRichard H. ThalerSendhil MullainathanSim SitkinStefano DellaVignaSusan T. FiskeSuzanne B. ShuThomas GilovichTodd RogersUri GneezyZiad Obermeyer_3cc0b384-c4b0-11e5-9d3b-295b134596b3To use the power of behavioral science to design scalable solutions to some of society's most difficult problems._3cc0b5d2-c4b0-11e5-9d3b-295b134596b3Programs, Policies & ProductsDesign scalable ways to improve programs, policies and products_3cc0bd66-c4b0-11e5-9d3b-295b134596b3At ideas42, we are working to apply cutting-edge behavioral insights to some of the world's toughest social problems. Postsecondary EducationBreak Barriers to Postsecondary Education_3cc0c5e0-c4b0-11e5-9d3b-295b134596b31US Department of EducationLow-Income High School SeniorsBill and Melinda Gates FoundationLumina FoundationCiti FoundationYouth Policy InstituteLaGuardia Community CollegeSusan Dell FoundationSan Francisco State UniversityAccording to the US Census Bureau, college graduates earn almost twice as much as those with only a high school diploma over the course of their lifetime, and are significantly more likely to be employed. This not only means that people are better able to support themselves and their families in the future, it also helps to strengthen the US economy by increasing tax returns and consumer spending power, and builds a more educated workforce that can compete on a global stage. But the reality is that not everyone finds it easy to make the most out of opportunities in higher education. According to the US Department of Education, less than half of low-income high school seniors who intend to go to college end up enrolling, and just one in twelve graduate with a degree by age 24. What can be done to help these students make better choices so that they reach their potential? ideas42 has been looking at this issue since 2012, and in May 2013 we published a white paper on using behavioral economics for postsecondary success. ideas42 is now building on this work by designing and testing a number of behavioral interventions that are aimed at improving outcomes in postsecondary education. First, with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Lumina Foundation, ideas42 has launched "Nudging for Success: Breaking Behavioral Barriers to Higher Education". From 2014 through early 2016, ideas42 and its sub-grantees will design and test eight behaviorally-informed interventions related to the federal financial aid system with the aim of expanding access to higher education, encouraging successful completion of college studies, and supporting the repayment of student loans. The ultimate goal of this work is to generate insights that will inform the policy conversation around higher education reform. There are currently three additional projects addressing post-secondary success. Thanks to funding from the Citi Foundation, ideas42 is partnering with the Youth Policy Institute in LA to encourage more low-income high-school students to apply to college, and with LaGuardia Community College in New York to reduce the number of aspiring students who accept a place at the college but fail to enroll (the 'summer melt' problem). In addition, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation is supporting a project with San Francisco State University, allowing the team at ideas42 to design and test a behavioral approach to reducing the number of students who drop-out of college between the first and second year. All of these interventions will be designed with an eye to scalability -- the ultimate goal is to identify interventions that can be adopted by institutions across the US.Cash TransfersDesign and evaluate a series of behavioral science "nudge" interventions to improve the impact of cash transfer programs._3cc0c6d0-c4b0-11e5-9d3b-295b134596b32Developing WorldMadagascar Improving household nutrition and educational outcomes in the context of an unconditional transferMexicoEncouraging formal savings uptake in the context of a conditional transferSudanSpurring rural and urban productivity and take-up of ancillary social services in the context of an unconditional transferGovernments around the developing world use cash transfer programs -- many of which are conditional on beneficiary behavior, such as sending children to school -- as a major instrument of social protection, economic stimulus and service delivery. A large body of academic evidence shows that such programs can improve the welfare of poor populations in a variety of ways, e.g. by increasing the consumption of the poor, facilitating greater investment in health and education, and reducing gender disparities. Yet until recently, little attention has been paid to the behavioral implications of such programs, specifically whether they can be improved through the addition of insights from behavioral science that shed light on the drivers of beneficiaries' decisions and actions. This is now changing, with recent and ongoing influential research exploring the impact of many factors beyond simply the size of the transfer on the lives of the poor. Such research has examined, for example, the timing, frequency, and method by which the funds are disbursed, and whether the costly need to enforce conditionality can be replaced with something cheaper that might be just as effective (a "label" for instance). ideas42 seeks to add to this growing body of evidence in the developing world by designing and evaluating a series of behavioral science “nudge” interventions to improve the impact of cash transfer programs. Behavioral insights may also improve the effectiveness of beneficiary trainings, social service delivery, awareness campaigns, or other programming that accompanies the transfer. Examples of ideas42 projects in the domain of cash transfers include (note: some of these may still be in development): Madagascar: Improving household nutrition and educational outcomes in the context of an unconditional transfer Mexico: Encouraging formal savings uptake in the context of a conditional transfer Sudan: Spurring rural and urban productivity and take-up of ancillary social services in the context of an unconditional transferPlayable CitiesCreate Playable Cities_3cc0c9c8-c4b0-11e5-9d3b-295b134596b33CitiesParentsPolicymakersPlannersBusinessesKaBOOM!ideas42 will be working with KaBOOM! over the next several months to identify and implement behaviorally-informed solutions to increase play and well-being for kids everywhere.The well-being of society begins with the well-being of kids. And kids need active and balanced play -- play that gets their legs moving and hearts pumping, but also helps them develop social and problem-solving skills. Kids who engage in physically active play at least two or three times a week and spend less time in front of the TV, for example, are far less likely to be overweight, according to one study. But kids today play less actively than ever before. That’s partly because they have limited access to safe play areas, shorter recess times and a growing number of sedentary entertainment options. It’s also because of invisible psychological barriers. ideas42 has identified three major behavioral obstacles to kids engaging in the right amount of balanced and active play each day. Using insights from behavioral economics and research into disadvantaged communities, we found parents and caregivers may not even think about play because it’s not a planned event, like school or a soccer game. That’s especially true if they have busy schedules and daily obligations. We also found the benefits of play may not be immediately apparent, so parents and caregivers may lack the feedback that would show their kids are playing in a beneficial way. And even the most well-intentioned parents may be deterred by mundane tasks related to active play, such as packing bags, changing clothes and providing transportation. We used these findings to develop innovative ways of integrating active play into kids' daily lives -- reclaiming time that would otherwise be spent on sedentary activities -- and making playgrounds more accessible and appealing to whole families. We hope the results, outlined in a new white paper titled "Using Behavioral Economics to Create Playable Cities," will be used by policymakers, planners and businesses to promote active play in cities. The paper, based on in-depth interviews with families in low-income communities to better understand their challenges and day-to-day routines, was the result of a collaboration with KaBOOM!, a non-profit dedicated to increasing access to play, particularly for the 16 million children living in poverty in the United States. It was presented at the recent KaBOOM! Playful City USA Leaders' Summit in Chicago, as well as the 2015 SXSWedu conference in Austin.Family Planning & Reproductive HealthApply insights from behavioral science to improve uptake and accessibility of crucial healthcare services worldwide_c3ebe344-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b34The William and Flora Hewlett FoundationWomenin rural and low-income areasFamiliesGlobal Health OrganizationsFor people around the world, the ability to make choices about having children -- whether to have them, when to have them and how many to have -- depends on a wide range of factors. Among others, things such as economic status, culture, local health policies, clinic accessibility, and levels of education all play a role. While the global efforts to improve family planning and reproductive health (FPRH) services have made great strides in the last several years, there are still many people who do not fully utilize family planning services (or at all) even when they intend to.As a result, they face high rates of stopping the usage of family planning methods, unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortions, and infant and maternal mortality.What explains the gap between people's desire to space or limit childbirths and their lack of uptake and continued use of FPRH services? Behavior is one important part of the answer. This includes measurable behaviors in women and men of reproductive age, their families and friends, FPRH service providers and administrators, and other community members. ideas42 is working on different pieces of this complex global challenge through our Behavioral Economics for Innovations in Family Planning and Reproductive Health program, generously supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.Using the principles of behavioral economics, we're identifying ways to improve the health and future well-being of women and their families by making FPRH services more effective. ideas42 is working with global health organizations and service providers around the world to identify behavioral problems that could be solved by changing the way services are provided to women in rural and low-income areas.Over the next two years, ideas42 hopes to apply our expertise in cutting-edge behavioral interventions to FPRH services in the developing world, helping individuals and families plan for the future.Financial Management TrainingLead Innovation in Behaviorally-Informed Technology for Financial Management Training_c3ebeef2-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b35Microentrepreneursin developing countriesAntoinette SchoarAlejandro DrexlerGreg FischerDominican RepublicUSAIDCGAPIFMR LEADJanalakshmiIndiaNWTFNegros Women for Tomorrow FoundationPhilippinesMicroentrepreneurs in developing countries face complex financial management decisions. Still, many lack the knowledge or skills they need to manage such decisions for a small enterprise. Classroom-based financial education courses have traditionally been used as a way to fill the skills gap, but are shown to have little impact on key business outcomes such as sales and profits. Prevailing wisdom has held that with the right classroom-based training in accounting and business planning, people could come close to making the perfect decisions. Behavioral science tells us, however, that increased knowledge alone does not always translate into improved decisions or actions. Psychologists have found that simple information is more easily absorbed and recalled. This insight points to alternative ways to deliver needed financial management training in a much more effective way.ideas42 co-founder Antoinette Schoar, together with Alejandro Drexler and Greg Fischer, first developed a simplified financial management training that uses effective rules of thumb, or "heuristics", to improve microentrepreneurs' financial management skills in the Dominican Republic. Overall, it appeared that microentrepreneurs given heuristics-based training were more likely to implement what they learned than the comparison group given traditional classroom-based training. Moreover, heuristics-based training led to a real, economically meaningful improvement in weekly revenues for microentrepreneurs. This initial success has paved the way for the next phase of our financial heuristics work -- two new pilots, which focus on developing a more efficient delivery channel for the heuristics-based training.Thanks to generous support from USAID and CGAP, we are currently working on developing a mobile phone-based financial management training product, in collaboration with IFMR LEAD in India, that is customer-centric and scalable to reach a large number of informal entrepreneurs across the developing world. We are working with technology firms to develop an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) solution utilizing a scalable off-the-shelf technology platform. We will pilot and test the effectiveness of our behavioral solution through randomized controlled trials with two microfinance institutions – Janalakshmi in India and Negros Women for Tomorrow Foundation (NWTF) in the Philippines.Our mobile-based intervention, besides being beneficial to microentrepreneurs, is also attractive to financial institutions, due to its customizability and the low marginal cost per additional user. This makes the technology more likely to scale in the future. Reducing content complexity and replacing classroom-based delivery with a lighter-touch method offer fresh promise for improving financial and business decisions of microentrepreneurs, and for lifting them and their families out of poverty.Fuel Economy & Car BuyingExplore ways to nudge consumers into purchasing more environmentally-friendly cars_c3ebf762-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b36Car BuyersTruck BuyersMITSar DealershipsBuying a new car or truck often involves weighing a large number of options. Besides choosing things like color and safety features, many buyers will also consider fuel economy, something that can not only save them money on fuel, but can also help reduce pollution. But how much does this consideration actually influence their final decision? And how do they interpret the information about fuel economy that’s presented to them?ideas42 partnered with MIT to try and answer these important questions. We ran experiments at seven car dealerships across the United States using interactive iPad apps as a tool to prompt people to think about fuel economy.Research assistants approached potential vehicle buyers, who were randomly allocated into a control or a treatment group. They asked every potential buyer the same set of questions: what their current vehicle was and what two or three new vehicles they were considering. They also asked for details about the potential buyer’s driving behavior -- estimates on their annual mileage and how many of those miles were on city roads versus highways.For those people in the treatment group, the research assistants showed the participants projections of the annual and lifetime fuel costs for the two or three models they were thinking about buying. The app compared these costs, showing the participant how much money they could save comparatively if they purchased the most fuel-efficient vehicle.We are now in the process of following up with the participants to find out which vehicles they ultimately selected. This will give us an important insight into how the additional information about fuel economy influenced their behavior on the showroom floor.Hot-Spot PolicingImprove safety in high-crime areas of New York City by developing and testing novel interventions that draw on behavioral science_c3ec0216-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b37MinneapolisJersey CityPoliceUniversity of Chicago Crime LabNew York Police Department (NYPD)New York City Department of Corrections (DOC)National Institute of Justice (NIJ)New methods in better public safety with the NYPD -- Reports of crime tend to be disproportionately concentrated in relatively small geographic areas. According to one study, half the calls to Minneapolis police during a given period came from just 3% of the city's addresses. Another study showed nearly half the narcotics arrests in Jersey City happened in an area covering just 4% of its streets and intersections.Research shows that crime seems to disproportionately happen in specific hot spots, and there's some evidence that focusing safety efforts in those areas reduces crime without significantly displacing it to other areas (Braga, Papachristos, & Hureau 2012). If we can better understand hot spots and why police presence there is effective in reducing crime, then we can help create safer communities.ideas42 is partnering with the University of Chicago Crime Lab, the New York Police Department (NYPD) and the New York City Department of Corrections (DOC) to conduct research on crime hot spots. The project, supported by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), aims to improve safety in high-crime areas of New York City by developing and testing novel interventions that draw on behavioral science.MicrosavingsImprove Microsavings_c3ec0702-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b38CARD BankGrameen FoundationApplying behavioral science at CARD Bank -- It's no secret that saving money is a good idea. Even when funds are tight, putting away a small amount on a regular basis can mitigate unforeseen emergencies and enable people to make investments toward building long-term financial stability. Despite these realities, and the best intentions, individuals often fail to take steps to save for the future.ideas42 collaborated with the Grameen Foundation and CARD Bank, Inc. to test out an innovative solution to this problem with a pilot program in the Philippines -- a country where only 26 percent of adults use formal financial services and nearly 80 percent do not have a deposit savings account. There is a white paper that details the full project and its outcomes.The team determined that by applying behavioral design principles, and introducing a relatively inexpensive set of behavioral levers to address bottlenecks at key stages of opening and interacting with a savings account, significant impacts on savings rates could be achieved.The results were dramatic. A randomized controlled trial found that clients who were exposed to the new designs upon opening a savings account made initial deposits that were 15% larger than the deposits of those who opened accounts using the standard process. The design also made clients 73% more likely to initiate a transaction in the new account, and these clients made smaller and more frequent ongoing deposits as well as smaller withdrawals. Most importantly, the intervention seems to have had the effect of increasing balances by 37% compared to the control group over the course of the eight-week pilot.The pilot project with CARD Bank not only produced successful results with regards to savings behaviors, but also generated several useful lessons about microsavings and behavioral design that can be applied to future product and program innovations. The insights gleaned from the project have the potential to significantly impact approaches that address poverty across the world on a large scale.Retirement SavingsIncrease Retirement Savings_c3ec0be4-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b39MexicoMexican ElderlyMetLife FoundationCONSARMexico's commission for the national retirement savings systemAfores11 retirement savings administratorsAmaforeAfore national associationLatin AmericansBehavioral approaches in the Mexican system -- Despite good intentions, many of us struggle on the path to reaching our retirement savings goals. We encounter small obstacles along the way that can prevent us from making decisions or taking action to improve our long-term financial health. Failing to do so can lead to a variety of struggles later in life once our careers have ended.In Mexico, for the average worker that translates to receiving less than 40% of her current salary during retirement -- a number that’s less than half of the recommended rate to meet daily expenses. Because of the current retirement savings system nationwide in Mexico, achieving a comfortable retirement hinges on individual workers taking initiative and making additional voluntary contributions beyond the automatic amount. However, even with recent government efforts to increase the ease and accessibility of contributing, only.3% of all active account holders do so in a given year. This has contributed to a troubling level of poverty (27%) among the Mexican elderly.Approaching this problem from a behavioral perspective allows us to better understand the barriers influencing low retirement savings and identify new solutions to an old problem. With funding from MetLife Foundation, ideas42 worked in collaboration with CONSAR, Mexico's commission for the national retirement savings system; the 11 retirement savings administrators, or Afores; and the Afore national association, Amafore, in an effort to design low-cost, scaleable solutions aimed at increasing voluntary contributions among Mexicans.By applying a behavioral lens to the Mexican retirement landscape, we uncovered the complexity of the pathway individuals must embark on to successfully and adequately save for retirement. We began our work in this space through in-depth interviews with Mexican workers and retirement administrators, and analyses of savings habits that informed many interesting insights about retirement.For example, we found that people may never start actively thinking about retirement unless prompted. In Mexico, this is compounded by the fact that often people don’t notice prompts or cues from the retirement savings system, or from those around them, to consider saving for their distant future. Even if people do direct some of their attention to retirement, they still might not begin to save at that particular moment for a far-off future that’s abstract, blurry, and unknown. Instead, they may "hide" from the problem and pretend it doesn’t exist, or become overconfident, believing that they'll have time to save enough later.We then collected these insights in a recently published, comprehensive report. Our report (available in English and Spanish in the side column) provides high-level behavioral design recommendations for policymakers and practitioners in the Mexican retirement savings industry to increase voluntary retirement savings. We are currently working to implement various interventions with key members of the retirement savings system to generate proven, scalable designs that could improve the long-term financial health of millions of people in Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.Intimate Partner ViolenceMake the world safer for women, girls, and their families_c3ec14d6-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b310WomenBoliviaIPPF-WHRInternational Planned Parenthood Federation - Western Hemisphere RegionCIESCentro de Investigación, Educación y ServiciosUgandaRaising VoicesCenter for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP)Physical, sexual, economic and/or psychological harm by a current or former partner, technically known as Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), is a serious issue that affects millions of people around the world, primarily women and girls. As well as being an fundamental injustice that violates women’s basic rights, it affects the mental and physical well-being of survivors, their families, and broader communities. The repercussions of violence against women can last for generations.To help combat this alarming problem, ideas42 is undertaking a comprehensive effort to explore the application of behavioral science to programs dealing with IPV in a number of different countries.In Bolivia, we’ve joined with the International Planned Parenthood Federation -- Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF-WHR) and Centro de Investigación, Educación y Servicios (CIES) to improve case management for women affected by IPV. Through this partnership, we seek to increase understanding of referral pathways to the specialized services for gender-based violence that are available to clients in their communities as well as 6 clinics and 11 health centers operated by CIES, and to suggest small changes that could improve follow-through on referrals. Improving follow-through on referrals will mean that more women who experience IPV receive medical, psychological, and other assistance that can improve the quality of their lives and those of their families.In Uganda, we are working with Raising Voices and the Center for Domestic Violence Prevention (CEDOVIP), non-profit organizations working to prevent violence against women. These organizations use the SASA! approach, in which they identify, train and support community activists to mobilize communities to better understand and take action to prevent violence. Through our work, we will identify and suggest behaviorally-informed ways to target hard-to-reach women and men, with the end goal of decreasing the frequency and prevalence of intimate partner violence.Finally, we are working to reinvigorate the search for innovative interventions in IPV by releasing an intimate partner violence request for proposals (RFP). We hope this process will bring in insights from fields not commonly seen in the IPV space and enable unexpected approaches to the IPV epidemic which, when paired with rigorous evaluation, could help reduce and prevent IPV worldwide.We received a larger number of applications than anticipated. We were very impressed by the quality of applications and the level of innovation in the proposed activities. The selection process has been highly competitive, and we are still finalizing our decisions. We will announce decisions by February, 2016.BIAS ProjectLearn how tools from behavioral science can be used to improve the well-being of low-income children, adults, and families by making changes to existing programs_c3ec1a12-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b311Poor PeoplePolicymakersAdministration for Children and Families (ACF)MDRCLow-Income ChildrenLow-Income AdultsLow-Income FamiliesMaking the Case for Behavioral Science in Policy Design -- The BIAS Report -- Many social programs for poor people require participants to make active decisions and go through a series of steps in order to benefit from them. These steps can include deciding which programs to apply to, completing forms, attending meetings, showing proof of eligibility, and arranging travel and child care.Do such hassles matter? Given that the potential benefits of participating in these programs so vastly outweigh the hassles imposed by these requirements, most policymakers would argue that their impacts on program uptake and engagement is likely to be minimal.Psychologists and behavioral economists disagree. Research suggests something quite counter-intuitive: such apparently trivial requirements may have tremendous effects on program participation and the extent to which people benefit from them. In practice, many people who are eligible for programs procrastinate over filling out forms, are confused about requirements, or get overwhelmed by the variety of choices offered, resulting in a failure to enroll. Others may drop out midway because they cannot keep up with appointments, documents, or related participation requirements.This focus on the powerful influence of small program details on their uptake and use is just one example of how a deeper understanding of human behavior, and the assumptions of program designers about what moves humans to behave in certain ways, can lead to innovative ideas about ways to improve program effectiveness.The Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project, sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, sought to apply such behavioral insights to programs that serve poor families in the United States. The project, conducted by MDRC in partnership with ideas42, closely examined existing programs to identify these types of small, but potentially influential, behavioral bottlenecks that get in the way of maximizing program impacts and can do so without increasing overall program costs. The ultimate goal of the project is to learn how tools from behavioral science can be used to improve the well-being of low-income children, adults, and families by making changes to existing programs.Summons RedesignApply behavioral science to increasing the efficacy and fairness of the criminal justice system_c3ec200c-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b312New York CityMayor's Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ)New York Police Department (NYPD)New York's Office of Court Administration (OCA)Laura and John Arnold FoundationUniversity of Chicago's New York Crime LabMaking low-level tickets harder to ignore -- In 2014, nearly 40% of the approximately 320,000 people issued a ticket for a violation or low-level misdemeanor in New York City, also known as a summons, did not take the required responsive action. Depending on the particular violation, this is either appearing in court or pleading by mail. The consequence of failing to respond to a summons is the issuance of an arrest warrant by the police, regardless of violation severity. Summons-level offenses run a wide range of minor infractions encountered in daily life in New York City, from riding a bicycle on the sidewalk to disorderly conduct to drinking in public places.Because issuing arrest warrants is costly and inconvenient for both the police and recipients, the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ), in partnership with the New York Police Department (NYPD) and New York’s Office of Court Administration (OCA), asked ideas42 for inexpensive, easy-to-implement solutions that can reduce failure-to-appear rates.We took a two-sided approach to tackling this problem. The first was to conduct a rapid re-design of the city’s standard summons form to make it clearer and easier for people to respond appropriately and reduce failure-to-appear rates.Behaviorally-informed modifications to the summons form included moving the most important information from the very bottom to the top of the form, making the negative consequences of failure to act prominent, and using behavioral language to encourage recipients to show up to court or plead by mail. An in-depth look at the before-and-after versions of the summons form is available here.The second part of our intervention is aimed at impacting the rates of court appearance through timely text message and phone call reminders to summons recipients. We are diagnosing the behavioral barriers leading too many people to miss their court dates and receive an arrest warrant, and designing reminders to overcome these barriers.Thanks to funding from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation, we've joined with the University of Chicago’s New York Crime Lab along with MOCJ, OCA, and NYPD to conduct a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to test the impact of the reminder portion of our behavioral interventions.ideas42 is excited to measure the impact reminders have on court appearance and warrant issuance rates, and the potential it has to keep people from falling into the criminal justice system through failure-to-appear arrests. This project presents an invaluable opportunity to apply behavioral science to increasing the efficacy and fairness of the criminal justice system.PovertyBreak the cycle of inter-generational poverty by aligning anti-poverty systems and services with human behavior_c3ec2930-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b313Poor AmericansSome 45 million Americans live in poverty -- a staggering 14% of the population. Among them are millions of children who, as a result of their deprivation, fall behind their peers in physical, mental and emotional health. This perpetuates a cycle of poverty that passes down from generation to generation.In an effort to help children and their families break out of this cycle of poverty, ideas42 has embarked on a new initiative called Poverty Interrupted (PI). The application of behavioral science to this endemic problem could lead not only to improved lives, but also to more efficient deployment of limited public resources.In 2014, the PI team studied poverty -- its causes, costs and consequences -- and current anti-poverty initiatives in a behavioral context. We reviewed a vast body of academic literature and spoke with more than 70 experts on poverty in the United States, including academics, practitioners and most importantly, parents raising children on low-incomes. We also conducted contextual reconnaissance at 15 service organizations across the country.Our research phase culminated with the publication of a white paper that includes specific recommendations for policymakers, program designers, direct service providers and others interested in better aligning anti-poverty systems and services with human behavior.We will soon begin working with funders and partner organizations to test our recommendations on the ground, with the ultimate goal of scaling up successful interventions to help as many families as possible break the grip of poverty.Public SafetyImprove safety in South Africa's low-income communities_c3ec2f7a-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b314South AfricaLow-Income CommunitiesMarginalized CommunitiesWestern Cape GovernmentCape TownCape Flats NeighborhoodsVictimsPerpetratorsPart of our South Africa project aimed at improving public health and safetySouth Africa has one of the highest per-capita crime and murder rates of any country in the world. However, the majority of violent crime in South Africa is localized in a small proportion of low-income, marginalized communities. While increased enforcement in these dangerous areas is a potential pathway to reducing violent crime, the Western Cape Government in South Africa asked ideas42 to identify other, behaviorally informed solutions to improving safety in South Africa's low-income communities.Working with the Western Cape’s Department of Community Safety and researchers from the University of Cape Town, we sought to understand the behavioral and psychological factors that might be perpetuating the incidence of violence in these communities. We found that young people were sticking with the status quo by spending time in unsafe places, environments where -- because of situational factors -- they were more likely to both perpetrate crime, and become a victim of crime.To try and overcome this tendency to spend time in unsafe environments – especially on weekend evenings when most crime was committed -- we designed a computer-based activity-planning tool to help nudge them towards less risky activities. This tool drew on behavioral insights that people are:* Less likely to go with the status quo option when they are forced to make an active decision about all available options.* More likely to follow through on their intended actions when they make public commitments and plan ahead.We developed a prototype tool and tested it with young people from Cape Town's Cape Flats neighborhoods. We wanted to assess whether it was more effective than the traditional approach of improving safety awareness in two respects:Improving how “safe” the young people reported feeling.Reducing the number of violent events they experienced in the past week.The tool had powerful effects. A randomized controlled trial found that young people in the treatment group were half as likely as the control group to participate in unsafe activities by the end of the study. The treatment population was also almost half as likely as the control group to report feeling unsafe, and half as likely to report experiencing violence in the past week.These results have significant implications for how we think about improving safety and reducing crime. In many parts of the world violent crime is a serious problem, with policy-makers and practitioners alike looking to increased investment in enforcement as a way of mitigating the problem. This pilot project illustrates that supporting targeted decision-making and planning for both potential victims and perpetrators has the potential to significantly reduce violent crime.Credit Union ServicesReshape the consumer finance industry and empower individuals to make better financial decisions_c3ec3592-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b315Credit UnionsAlliant Credit UnionNon-Prime Credit ConsumersRedesign Credit Union Services -- Reshaping the consumer finance industry and empowering individuals to make better financial decisions -- Behavioral science can help members of Alliant Credit Union, the country's seventh largest credit union, make better financial decisions. It can also help the Chicago-based financial cooperative minimize the risks it may face when it offers services to a new cross-section of customers: non-prime credit consumers.ideas42 is working with Alliant to apply behavior and decision-making research to a variety of consumer financial products offered by the not-for-profit cooperative founded in 1935. The partnership, which began last year and will continue through at least 2016, seeks to generate insights that would help reshape the consumer finance industry and empower individuals to make sounder financial decisions.The work is part of an effort to better serve Alliant's members and expand its services to include a new demographic of non-prime credit consumers. It will focus on products such as vehicle loans, mobile deposits and online banking.Alliant's focus on customer-centric product design and membership expansion aligns well with ideas42's behavioral design methodology, and we are eager to work with them on this and future projects. We are particularly excited to help redesign existing loan experiences and operations to meet the needs of non-prime credit consumers, while simultaneously reducing the risks Alliant and other financial institutions may face when offering such services.HIVReframe HIV risks_c3ec3f74-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b316Western Cape GovernmentSouth AfricaYoung GirlsWestern Cape's Department of HealthUniversity of Cape TownSub-Saharan AfricaA behavioral approach to one of the world's largest health crises in partnership with the Western Cape Government in South Africa -- Over 5 million people in South Africa are infected with HIV. Worryingly, teenage schoolgirls are three times more likely to be HIV positive than boys their age. One of the reasons behind this alarming phenomenon is thought to be the widespread tendency for young girls to have relationships with older men, who are more likely to be HIV positive. Addressing this problem is therefore crucial in the ongoing fight against HIV.The Western Cape Government in South Africa asked ideas42 to find a behavioral solution to this major public health problem. Working with the Western Cape’s Department of Health and researchers at the University of Cape Town, we identified an issue that leads to more teenage girls getting involved with older men: there is a misperception among some that older men are safer sexual partners, rather than the riskier choice they actually represent.We designed a simple, computer-based "HIV risk game" to correct this misperception, drawing on the behavioral insights that people are:* More likely to learn something new if they have repeated exposure to the information; and* More likely to remember concepts that they teach themselves.We developed a prototype game and tested it with teenagers from the target population in South Africa so that we could find out whether it was more effective than a traditional approach to providing information about HIV risk.The results were striking. We found that the treatment group was significantly more likely to correctly identify which of two hypothetical individuals of different ages is more likely to have HIV after playing the game, answering twice as many questions correctly than those in the control group. Importantly, the results also suggested that these effects persisted over the next 3 months.These findings have significant implications. In South Africa and other parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, practitioners face huge challenges educating at-risk groups about HIV. Sharing this information through an effective and inexpensive game has the potential to help stop the spread of HIV and save thousands -- if not millions -- of lives.Financial InclusionImprove financial stability for millions of Americans while also providing sustainable profits for banks_c3ec49b0-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b317Unbanked AmericansUnderbanked AmericansLMI Americanslow- and middle-income (LMI) AmericansOliver WymanFord FoundationBanksReimagining Financial Inclusion --Banking products to improve financial prospects -- Nearly one in three Americans is "unbanked" or “underbanked” and -- despite significant efforts by regulators, consumer advocates, and leading financial institutions – this figure has remained largely unchanged since 2009. So what needs to change to crack the code on financial inclusion? Why hasn’t there been more progress in low- and middle-income (LMI) Americans' financial health, and what would a solution look like that could meet both consumer needs and provider bottom lines?Reimagining Financial Inclusion, the white paper we recently published with global management consultancy Oliver Wyman, aims to tackle exactly this dilemma. The surprising conclusion of this work is a revolutionary solution that could improve financial stability for millions of Americans while also providing sustainable profits for banks.Instead of trying to squeeze lower income consumers into existing financial products, we propose a solution that integrates deposits and credit to meet their cash management needs as well as the needs of financial providers. People living paycheck-to-paycheck need banking solutions designed specifically to help them manage the reality of volatile income and expenses. Because this reality includes unpredictable spikes and dips, reaching financial stability requires a product that will intervene in good times as well as in bad.Our new solution would enable consumer financial health and provider profits in three major ways: automating budgeting and saving, offering affordable credit, and integrating spending, savings, and credit for the consumer. Along with behavioral enhancements like smart reminders and a fee structure that is both transparent and fair, the solution set could save the average unbanked consumer $500 per year on financial services fees and generate lifetime profit potential of over $1 billion for a large bank.The white paper also blows up three pernicious myths about LMI consumers and personal finance:* These Americans don't want to save (they do)* They don’t have money to pay for financial services (they actually pay more than the average consumer)* They are bad at managing their finances (in reality they are more aware of their personal finances than higher-income individuals)We are grateful to the Ford Foundation and Oliver Wyman for their support of this important work... Tweet at us (@ideas42) to join the conversation, or email katy@ideas42.org to join the conversation or get involved with Reimagining Financial Inclusion.Budgeting & SavingAutomate budgeting and saving_c3ec4cda-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b317.1CreditOffer affordable credit_c3ec56b2-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b317.2Financial IntegrationIntegrate spending, savings, and credit for the consumer_c3ec5cfc-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b317.3StatinsUse nudges to improve the health of cardiac patients_c3ec62ec-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b318Medicaid Leadership InstituteSoonerCareOklahoma Health Care Authority's Medicaid programCardiac PatientsSticking to Statins -- Using Nudges to Improve Health -- Heart disease is deadly. It caused one out of every three deaths in the United States in 2007. It is also expensive. The direct and indirect costs of cardiac disease and strokes are estimated to be over $400 billion.The good news is that cardiac disease can be managed using medication. Statins -- widely available, immensely effective -- are the leading treatment option. But here's the thing: statins are only effective when used properly. Despite the enormous health benefits of statins, people do poorly at both getting onto statins and at using them as regularly as they need to.Can behavioral nudges improve these outcomes, getting more people on the drugs they need and getting them to stick to the regimens their doctors prescribe? ideas42 partnered with the Medicaid Leadership Institute and a team from the Oklahoma Health Care Authority’s Medicaid program (SoonerCare) to find out. We targeted a little under 2,500 Medicaid enrollees diagnosed with Type II diabetes, a major predictor of cardiac disease, who did not have a paid claim for a statin medication in 2009, for a randomized-control trial where we tested a small financial incentive (a $5 gift card) and contrasted it with a suite of behavioral interventions.Everyone in the target population received a letter encouraging them to call their doctor to arrange a cholesterol check, and to discuss a statins prescription. Those receiving only a basic letter served as our control group. One treatment group also received a $5 gift card with their letter, and were told to activate it after receiving an appointment. For a second group, the letter included a suite of behavioral nudges that have been effective in other domains, such as more salient description of the consequences of remaining untreated and post-it note reminders. A third treatment group received both the gift card and the "nudge suite" letter.In this preliminary pilot, the nudge treatment produced the greatest increase in statins prescriptions -- a 78 percent increase over the control group -- suggesting that further work in improving communications with this high-risk vulnerable population has the potential produce substantial increases in adherence and improvements in outcomes at minimal cost.BETA ProjectIncrease financial capability and security for those who need it most_c3ec7142-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b319Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED)Citi FoundationAccion TexasCleveland Housing NetworkNeighborhood Trust Financial PartnersA trio of interventions aimed at increasing financial capability and security for those who need it most -- Higher earnings alone are often not enough to help families escape poverty. Assets -- such as a home, business, or savings account -- provide an important buffer against unexpected challenges that would otherwise threaten financial security. Many families recognize the importance of assets but have trouble accumulating savings; many organizations offer programs designed to make asset development easier but struggle to keep clients engaged. How might a behavioral approach help us design solutions to these problems?The Behavioral Economics Technical Assistance (BETA) Project was a collaboration between ideas42 and the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) to help asset-building organizations apply insights and lessons from behavioral economics to their program designs. With funding from the Citi Foundation, the project sought to increase the scale and impact of organizations helping individuals build financial capability, savings and security by connecting high-capacity programs to innovative researchers and experts.The BETA team set out to design and test behavioral solutions through real world products, processes, and services. In 2013, the team applied a behavioral diagnosis and design methodology to create and test a set of solutions to behavioral challenges at three asset-building organizations: Accion Texas (TX), Cleveland Housing Network (OH), and Neighborhood Trust Financial Partners (NY).At microlending agency Accion Texas, staff reported that borrowers had difficulty making consistent, on-time loan payments and were regularly charged late fees as a result. The BETA team's research uncovered several behavioral challenges at work: for instance, borrowers tended to stick with the default payment date even when it was not ideal, and to be deterred by small barriers associated with making payments. In response, the BETA team redesigned the monthly statement Accion sends to each borrower and created a system of reminders that prompted clients to make a deposit or check their account balance before a payment due date. In a randomized controlled trial, these changes reduced the number of fees charged for insufficient funds by 25% among borrowers in the treatment group.Findings like these speak volumes to the potential for asset-building organizations to make small, inexpensive program adjustments inspired by behavioral economics. All three partner organizations opted to continue using some form of the intervention tested at their site on a more permanent basis, and the BETA Project team continues to disseminate its findings to others in the asset-building sector.Financial Health CheckDesign and pilot-test a comprehensive, in-person "financial health check" program_c3ec784a-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b320Financial Literacy CenterSocial Security AdministrationHelping People Build A Stronger Future -- For many of us, saving money is a lot harder in practice than in theory. At the end of every month, after bills and the expenses of daily life, it can often seem like there’s very little left to put aside for a rainy day. In fact, only a minority of Americans -- 40% according to a recent survey -- have the funds in reserve to support themselves for a minimum of three months. While this endemic lack of saving can be seen in all sections of society, the consequences of not having a financial buffer most strongly affects those with low incomes, who often don’t have as much access to credit and traditional banking services.In the event of unforeseen financial shocks like a medical emergency, car accident, or loss of employment, they’re often forced to cut back on other essentials, or take out high-interest loans that can trap them in debt cycles. Ongoing attempts to drive an increase in savings have resulted in the widespread use of 'financial literacy' and coaching programs as a means to increase financial capability. However, evaluations of these information-based training programs have shown mixed results when it comes to actually increasing savings rates. That shouldn't come as a surprise -- insights from behavioral science show that providing more information doesn't always translate to taking action. With this in mind, ideas42 partnered with the Financial Literacy Center and the Social Security Administration to design and pilot-test a comprehensive, in-person "financial health check" (FHC) program as an alternative to traditional classroom-style training.Previous research has demonstrated that common behavioral limitations such as forgetfulness and limited self-control play important roles in determining our financial behaviors. So rather than give clients a bevy of financial information and a list of steps to be completed after the coaching session, we encouraged recipients to take positive actions -- such as signing up for automatic transfers and text message reminders -- while still in the coaching session. We hypothesized that this would be a more effective way to deliver financial advice and could lead to increased savings rates. After a small, initial experiment with a credit union in the Pacific Northwest of the US, using a population of members who opted-in to the new program, we found that FHC recipients with no savings at the credit union had 21% more savings at the end of the study period than the control group.Our results demonstrate the potential of the FHC as a supplement to traditional counseling programs, as well as the potential to develop an even more effective financial-coaching approach that incorporates behavioral enhancements into financial education programs around the world.Walk4HealthPromote a culture of health and wellness in the Western Cape_c3ec79da-c530-11e5-b01b-0081134596b321South AfricaWorld Health OrganizationSkilled Office WorkersWestern Cape GovernmentSports Science Institute of South AfricaHeart and Stroke Foundation for South AfricaICAS\HealthInSite e|CareUniversity of Cape Town (UCT)Designing a culture of wellness in South Africa -- As societies around the world become more affluent, health problems arising from malnutrition and hunger are being joined by a new problem -- rising obesity rates. In the case of South Africa, a recent World Health Organization survey found that 41% of females and 21% of males are obese. The rising rates of obesity are related to increases in obesity-related disease and health care costs. This is particularly true amongst the rising population of skilled office workers, whose sedentary jobs offer little opportunity for physical activity throughout the workweek.In September 2013, the Western Cape Government (WCG) created the "Walk4 Health" initiative -- a partnership between the WCG, ideas42, the Sports Science Institute of South Africa, the Heart and Stroke Foundation for South Africa, ICAS\HealthInSite e|Care, and the University of Cape Town (UCT). The initiative had the goal of promoting a culture of health and wellness in the Western Cape.ideas42 and UCT applied insights from the behavioral sciences to design a friendly competition between several departments of the WCG offices, called Walk4Health. The goal was to make it both more salient and more enjoyable for people to be active while at work by promoting increased physical activity for improved health and introducing a competitive aspect to daily activities. Participants wore a pedometer device that tracked their daily steps. Recognizing the power of social norms on small lifestyle choices in a group setting, we incorporated incentives for participation, timely feedback via personal pedometers, and gamification to generate sustained attention within the teams into the challenge pilot. A public leaderboard was announced and tracked weekly, enabling participants to compare their progress to that of others and motivate them to stay on track and climb higher in the rankings. Each team also had Wellness Ambassadors to their respective government departments that would serve as a model for other employees to take up healthy habits and more active daily routines.The intervention was tested through a six-week pilot, and we gauged the effectiveness of our challenge in aiding in weight loss and physical fitness by taking opt-in participants’ pre and post biometric assessments. We found that the pilot did appear to effectively help participants lose weight, as well as lead to other improvements in standard makers of health such as BMI, cholesterol level, and blood pressure, as measured through comparison of pre- and post-challenge biometric assessments of participants. While the sample for this pilot was small, and contained no true control group, the results are suggestive of positive effects. The success of the six-week pilot program led the Department of the Premier (DOTP) within the WCG to instigate a second Walk4Health program that would run over the entire course of the year.The South Africa Walk4Health pilot offered preliminary evidence that the application of behavioral science can be a powerful remedy to everyday social problems. In a busy modern workplace where employees have little time or cognitive bandwidth to think about their health, the impact of small tweaks that nudge them to engage in healthy behaviors without requiring a lot of attention is real and measurable. The potential for targeting the obesity epidemic and resulting diseases through workplace-based wellness is significant and should be explored further.2016-01-26http://www.ideas42.org/about-us/OwenAmburOwen.Ambur@verizon.net