The burden-sharing problem of forced migration continues to threaten the lives and living conditions of millions. Previous attempts to address this challenge have not only failed to mobilize collective action but also inflicted substantial financial losses on G20 countries.

Dr. Manuel Schubert and Dr. Fahad Alsharif propose a new approach – the “G2020 Protocol on Forced Migration” – a global governance framework to efficiently manage the provision and allocation of refugee host capacities. In analogy to the Kyoto Protocol, the framework embeds a multinational exchange platform that balances national interests and capabilities of its member states. By offering member states different options to support burden-sharing, the framework elevates the unexploited gains of cooperation and maximizes incentives for states to join the treaty.

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We are delighted to announce that our article “Behavioral Insights for Humanitarian Aid and Relief: A selection of Case Studies to combat COVID-19” has been published in the International Journal of Humanitarian Studies, the academic journal of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid & Relief Centre.

In the article, our directors Dr. Manuel Schubert and Dr. Julia Stauf discuss how behavioral insights can be applied in humanitarian aid and relief. In light of the COVID-19 crisis, they present a selection of case studies that could help to improve social distancing, hand washing and information agency.[i] The article aims to serve as a source of inspiration and encouragement for practitioners to give behavioral insights interventions a try in humanitarian work.

The complete issue can be downloaded here.

[i] The case studies are based on articles and papers available till May 2020.

We are super excited and deeply honored to be the official Knowledge Partner of V20 in 2020.

V20 is a global platform of value experts and practitioners aiming to support the G20 in finding people-centered public policy solutions based on values. With its combined expertise in values and behavioral public policy, V20 seeks to improve societal outcomes and contribute to overcoming the global challenges.

Find out more about V20 on https://values20.org/.

Online experimentation is an important tool in behavioral economic research. Our affiliate Marcus Giamattei and his colleagues just published a paper on LIONESS Lab, a new platform for online experiments.

The platform allows researchers to develop, test, run, and share interactive experiments – covering the full range of behavioral economics topics. The platform is a joint project of the University of Nottingham, the University of Passau and the Max Planck Institute for Human Development Berlin. It is currently used by more than 300 institutions in over 50 countries.

Learn more about LIONESS Lab on https://lioness-lab.org/

Community infrastructure can have a huge impact on people’s behaviors, attitudes, and habits. How can urban planning improve wellbeing, social cohesion and group identity?

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22^nd place among the best young universities worldwide and 2^nd place in Germany

Behavia‘s academic incubator and alma mater the University of Passau has secured another top result in the Times Higher Education (THE) Ranking for 2020. Among the universities aged 50 or younger, Passau came in 22^nd (out of 414) and 2^nd among all German universities.

Find more information in the official press release (in German language).

Smart designs, settings and services change how we perceive options and ultimately affect our behaviors. Behavioral insights organize these effects in a systematic way and provide a wide range of nudging applications to better achieve an organization’s goals. Well-known examples at the company level are healthy workplace designs, nudges to de-bias recruitment decisions or to increase job satisfaction.

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We are very honored that Dr. Manuel Schubert and Dr. Fahad Alsharif have been invited to present their policy brief at the T20 virtual session.

The policy brief, titled “The G20 Protocol on Forced Migration”, proposes a new governance framework to manage the provision and allocation of host capacities on a global scale. More to come soon.

“How to increase trust in a service app that protects consumer data?” This was the key question behind our project with helix id, a provider of a mobile application that allows users to control third-party access to personal data.

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Second day of the 7th seminar on “Behavioral Economics and the Seven Deadly Sins” at Passau University. Today, we focused on moral balancing, overconfidence, decision making under risk, procrastination, and trust. To learn more about our own biases and preferences, we conducted a series of online experiments (the screenshot shows us during an incentive-compatible “marshmallow experiment”). For those who are interested in today’s topics, have a look at the full syllabus below.

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