Panel Chairs

Emília Sičáková-Beblavá, Institute of Public Policy, Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Emília Sičákova-Beblavá is an Professor at Comenius University. She serves as a head of Public Policy Institute at Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences. Here she conducts research (including behavioral experiments in public sector), manages graduate and PhD programs on public policy and teaches courses related to operation of public sector, including behavioral public policy. She has been involved with Transparency International Slovakia since 1998 as its President and since 2010 as the Board Member. Her post-gradual programs include Georgetown University, Yale University, Harvard university and World Bank.

Jiří Špalek, Department of Public Economics, Faculty of Economics and Administration, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Jiří Špalek is an Associate professor at Masaryk University. He serves as a head of Department of Public Economics and the director of Masaryk University Experimental Laboratory (MUEEL). He focuses on the application of quantitative methods in public sector research. Mainly, he uses methods of experimental and behavioral economics for studying various public economic and public policy issues. His recent projects analyze the motives why people take part in corrupt or bribery contracts, reasons for tax compliance on one hand or tax evasion on the other. He is the head of the Public Economy and Administration study programme at Masaryk University which holds international accreditation by EAPAA. He teaches courses covering public economics, public choice, and experimental and behavioral methods courses.

Background and Rationale

In recent years, public administrations across the world began to recognize the added value of incorporating insights of behavioral sciences into the public policy making and public management. The behavioral insights not only became an inspiration for policies, they in many occasions were allowed to become public policies themselves. This trend is reflected by the rising number of comprehensive catalogues describing behavioral interventions that were tested or directly implemented by local, national as well as international public administrations. We are in other words witnessing an emergence of a new field in public administration and management that bridges over the scientific research with the actual practice of public administrators/managers. The panel on research concerning behavioral public policies is thus a response to this trend.

The Goal of the Panel

The goal of this panel is to discuss and network research conducted within behavioral sciences area, especially the research that belongs to the area of behavioral and experimental economics, political sciences, public policy and public management, whose conclusions are relevant for today´s innovative public administrators across the globe and whose methods satisfy current scientific standards set out especially by research in cognitive psychology and experimental economics. The goal of this panel is in other words to provide a platform for current, cutting-edge researchers concerned with solving public policy issues by employing behavioral insights. While theoretical papers are welcomed, this panel will especially welcome papers describing applied research that is concerned with the utilization of behavioral insights by public administrations.