The ‘nudge unit’: the experts that became a prime UK export
A team of former civil servants specialising in behavioural psychology now pulls in revenues of �14m a year
- The financial performance of BIT – which uses behavioural psychology to change habits and actions – certainly suggests expertise, as a commodity, is valuable.
- Ten years ago, BIT was a small unit of civil servants established with the remit to apply lessons from behavioural economics and psychology to public policy.
- The group’s revenues last year climbed by a third to £14m and nearly 40% of that income came from overseas.
- Halpern’s ideas for altering the labour market, for example, take an approach that transcends classical left and right views.
- Education A 34% increase in acceptances of pupils from underrepresented schools to top universities, following a letter to the pupils from a top-tier student with a similar background.