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Overcoming behavioral obstacles to escaping poverty
- Behavioral Science & Policy
- Brookings Institution Press
- Volume 3, Issue 1, 2017
- pp. 80-91
- 10.1353/bsp.2017.0007
- Article
- Additional Information
International development policy is ripe for an overhaul. Behavioral science can help policymakers to spur changes in behaviors that are difficult to explain from a conventional economic perspective and impede economic development. We focus here on two well-documented, often coinciding psychological phenomena that have particularly wide-ranging implications for development policy: present bias (favoring immediate rewards over long-term considerations) and limited attention. We present a number of general policy recommendations that are informed by insight into these phenomena and offer concrete examples of how the recommendations can be implemented to help low-income individuals improve their lives and reach their long-term goals.