Behavioural economics and health

Human behaviour is an important determinant of health outcomes around the world. Understanding how people make health-related decisions is therefore essential for explaining health outcomes globally and for developing solutions to leading challenges in global health. Behavioural economics blends theories from economics and psychology to uncover key insights about human decision-making. This chapter describes several prominent theories from behavioural economics and reviews examples of how these theories can be useful in efforts to improve global health outcomes. We begin by reviewing the theory of rational decision-making that features prominently in economics and discuss important policy implications that follow from this theory. We then turn to theories and principles from behavioural economics and draw upon empirical evidence from around the world to highlight actionable behaviour change interventions that can be useful for students of global health and practitioners alike.