Professor Ivo Vlaev, our theme lead in Behavioural change, focuses on developing an integrated theory of behaviour change, combining principles from psychology and economics.

His research in to practical applications of Behavioural change theory develops and evaluates behaviour change interventions. Professor Ivo Vlaev also investigates innovative methods for developing and evaluating behaviour change interventions in health (professional practice, patient behaviours and lifestyle risk factors) and finance (motivating customers to manage their money more effectively; effective design of financial products).

In public policy, his research concentrates on assisting policy makers to enhance the more traditional methods of government with policy that facilitates behaviour change. An example of this can be seen in the UK Cabinet Office MINDSPACE report which Professor Vlaev co- authored. His work has also been cited in the scientific background document accompanying the Nobel prize committee’s awarding of the prize for economic sciences to Richard Thaler in 2017 (see The behavioralist as tax collector:using natural field experiments to enhance tax compliance).