8 th Quality Conference

1. 8th Quality Conference Session 3 Public Administration in the cycle of policy design, implementation and evaluation France (FR): How to turn ethnographic insight into more efficient policy-making

2. Case Description (1/4): Make citizen switch to digital channelsA huge challenge for French Administration Like many other countries, the French administration looked at improving accessibility of their services. They proposed a multichannel offer with the use of internet, email, phone, and counter in order to facilitate contact with users. The multichannel offer should have brought simplicity … It leads to more complexity It generates a flow of users going to reception services without any added value from the employee : dissatisfaction and costs for the administration The aim of our experiment is to help tax administration to face this very important challenge: increasing online tax return instead of paper (to encourage tax payers in using more online services to declare and get answers for low added-value requests) An ethnographic approach for understanding this « repeated behaviour »

3. Case Description (2/4): Make citizen switch to digital channelsAn ethnographic approach The results of the ethnographic approach Various attitude and behaviour profiles were established concerning the different contact channels This learning led to two decisions To redesign the website taking into account “life events” search entries. Throughout 2014, online and offline workshops are being organized with 20 tax administration users and employees to test the accessibility and clarity of online and mobile services. To use the nudge methodology to allay users concerns and encourage them to use the internet in low added-value procedures. BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS

4. Case description (3/4): Experiment nudge approaches to design better public policies for more efficient results Foundation Public policy aims to tailor our behavior to generate “good” decisions for the individual or society. Three main tools at administration’s disposal: Nudge helps governments to reinforce the effectiveness of public policy and to enable desired behavioural changes by individuals and society as a whole. Laws and Regulations Financial incentives (subsidies or taxes) Information Behavioural Economics radically changes our comprehension of individual decision-making processes BEHAVIOURALECONOMICS MENTAL SHORTCUTS Our decisions are influenced by many factors such as emotions, context, social interactions, or the way in which choices are presented to us. SOCIAL NORMS Nudges can be seen as a fourth, complementary course of action available to public policy decision makers

5. Case description (4/4): A first experiment with the French Tax Administration - The results Current behaviour: triggers and barriers Expected behaviour: Using online services Behavioural economics principles Thinking about using a digital channel Using a digital channel for the 1st time The (neo) novice Re-using a digital channel Nudge lab The worrier The confused The results of the 2014 campaign + 10% of online tax return

6. Impact: a fundamental shift in the way of making public policies To help decision makers to be successful in the use of Nudge approach To be sure of the impact of the nudges, stress on user’s experience, understanding their behaviour (often said, rarely made) The pragmatism consisting in testing nudges and evaluating their impact before their implementation is a real source of efficiency Test, learn, adapt Measure the impact of the nudges on behaviour Customized solutions based on real users experience Engaging stakeholders To be sure the recommendation will be implemented Ethics Be respectful of an individual’s freedom of choice

7. Perspectives (1/2): Proven success in the Tax Administration has inspired alternatives as to how to design and implement public policies • Nudge is starting to be applied in public policies facing with costly (Tax administration) or risky public behaviour (health and safety) that neither legislation, taxation nor information have managed to reduce. • Policy of promotion of generic medicines with a view to enhancing their use • Road safety. The aim is to better understand the behavior of road users and limit risk-taking behaviour (for those who use their phone while driving) • Public Health. Encouraging people to pay their hospital expenses • Human resources. The aim is to improve working conditions in order to reduce absenteeism (Ville de Paris) • Eldercare. Encouraging elderly persons to temporary stay in institutional care

8. Perspectives (2/2): lessons learned • A big success… • Being successful in disseminating this approach based on behavioural economics in the French ministries • Defining a new method based on users behaviour’s understanding • Obtaining results at the first experiment • Nevertheless, this big success has hidden two major lacks in this method : • The importance of using cognitive biases in the analysis of the different levers and barriers • The importance of designing experiments (randomised controlled trials)

9. Annexes

10. The nudge approach Step 1 User Journey Insights Step 2 Cognitive biases analysis Step 3 Nudge Lab Step 4 Selection & Improvements Step 5 Design of experimentations Step 6 Efficiency testing Behavioural Economics ethnography Identify and analyse psychological tendendies that are a common outcome of human thought : human judgements and decisions differ from rational choice theory Generate nudges (gentle prompts that triggers a desirable behavior (or prevent the opposite conduct) by using implicit levers, others than rational persuasion (information, education...), mainly by modifying situational choice architectures) A six steps approach

11. A six steps approach Step 1 User Journey Insights Step 2 Cognitive biases analysis Understanding the reasonwhy of the existingbehavior and the barriers of adopting the desiredbehavior. The specificity of this ethno researchisto use the lens of behavioraleconomicsmeaning to identify the role of the 3 main differents influences which have been discovered in behavioraleconomics : the personalfactors, the social interactions and the role of the environmental and situationalfactors. Identify and analyse psychologicaltendendiesthat are a commonoutcome of humanthought : humanjudgements and decisionsdifferfrom rational choicetheory Step 3 Nudge Lab 1 daycocreation workshop experts whoadd the BehaviouralEconomics and nudge knowledge, client side people (including final internal clients) and creative people as gamers for example. The nudgelab workshop ismoderated by a qual expert in creativity techniques to stimulate inspiration.

12. A six steps approach Step 4 Selection & Improvements How to select and priorize the differentnudgeswhich have been designed in a rigourous and standardizedway. Step 5 Design of experimentations Pre-testingresearchaiming at evaluating the impact of the differentnudges on behaviour. Are wesuccessful in our objective to encourage a behaviour change before national implementation? Randomizedcontrolled trial are recommanded Step 6 Efficiency testing

13. French Tax AdministrationExemples of nudges experimented in 2014 Nudge communication by e-mail Testing text message

14. French Tax AdministrationExemples of nudges experimented in 2014 Default nudge applied to tax return notice

15. CONTACT • Françoise Waintrop, Cheffe de la Mission Méthodes d’écoute et d’innovation Secrétariat général pour la modernisation de l’action publique Services du Premier Ministre francoise.waintrop@modernisation.gouv.fr www.modernisation.gouv.fr