Behavioral economics and behavioral change policies: theoretical foundations and practical applications to promote well-being in the Italian context

The PhD thesis is divided in four parts: Part 1. The first part provides a historical and theoretical background of the most influential models of decision-making developed in the last few decades in the fields of economy and psychology. It begins with an overview of the basic principles of Neoclassical Economics and follows with a description of the studies that led to the birth and spread of Behavioral Economics. Part 2. The second part focuses on the main Behavioral Change policy programs developed in the last few years all over the world, particularly concentrating on the main features of the so called Nudge and on its alternative approach called Boost. Part 3. The center of attention of the third part are the researches carried out in the last few years in the Italian context by the author of this PhD thesis. The studies are divided in two main categories: the first includes experiments on the individual’s preferences within a laboratory setting while the second includes field experiments that study the actual choices of the individuals. Part 4. The last part offers a detailed description from a Behavioral Analytic point of view of some of the main concepts of Behavioral Economics and Nudge by highlight their common and divergent traits on a theoretical and practical level. This part is a an attempt to dig deeper into the topic of decisional processes and choices, by taking into account the extensive knowledge that derives from more than one century of studies on human behavior.