Leonhard K Lades
Biographic Data
| ID | 1581675 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Leonhard K Lades |
| GIVEN NAMES | Leonhard K |
| FAMILY NAME | Lades |
| SIGNATURE | LADES L K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University College Dublin |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3114-0781 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 36 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 16 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Administrative burdens as barriers to afforestation
Many governments offer financial incentives to encourage landowners to plant trees. However, administrative burdens associated with these afforestation schemes can hinder grant uptake. This paper builds on existing research on administrative burdens and “sludge,” which addresses these administrative challenges, by conducting a sludge audit of Ireland's Afforestation Scheme. We create a journey map that outlines the typical steps involved in secur…
Vulnerability to and acceptability of different types of sludge
Sludge is one of the most important yet underappreciated problems in modern society. Examples of sludge include unnecessarily complex paperwork requirements, hard-to-navigate documents and websites, long waiting time, and unfriendly or confusing staff interactions. However, little is known about whether some people are more vulnerable to and less accepting of some types of sludge than others. Drawing on data from a nationally representative surve…
The effects of emotions on stated preferences for environmental change
A large literature in behavioral science suggests that people's emotional condition can have an impact on their choices. We consider how people's emotions affect their stated preferences and willingness to pay for changes in environmental quality, focusing on the effects of incidental emotions. We use videos to induce emotional states and test the replicability of the results reported in Hanley et al. (2017). Additionally, we employ Face Reader s…
Self-control failures, as judged by themselves
The existence of self-control failures is often used to legitimize public policy interventions. The argument is that reducing self-control failures can make people better off, as judged by themselves. However, there is only scarce evidence on the frequency and welfare costs of self-control failures. This paper presents a survey method that allows us to measure self-control failures in everyday life and to identify their welfare costs in terms of …
Recent developments in Behavioural Public Policy
Introduction to IBPPC 2022Behavioural Public Policy (BPP) is an established sub-discipline of public policy.BPP uses insights from behavioural science, broadly defined, to shape and inform public policy.Intersectionality in social sciences research is central to the research agenda of BPP.To this extent, BPP invites diversity in its approach to understand human behaviours and make policy recommendations, from scholars across established disciplin…
Compliance Spending Aversion
Charities are increasingly required to spend more resources on administrative tasks to comply with regulations. Given previous findings on donors’ overhead aversion, namely that donors avoid giving to charities with a high ratio of overhead relative to program spending, we investigate whether donors also penalize charities that spend high shares of donations on administrative compliance tasks, despite these tasks being outside the charities’ cont…
Responsibility utility and the difference between preference and desirance
Actions can provide “responsibility utility” when they signal the actors’ identities or values to others or to themselves. This paper considers a novel implication of this responsibility utility for welfare analysis: fully informed incentive-compatible choice data can give a biased measure of the utility delivered by exogenously determined outcomes. A person’s choice of a policy outcome may be informed by responsibility utility that would be stri…
Sludge and transaction costs
Behavioral scientists have begun to research ‘sludge,’ excessive frictions that make it harder for people to do what they want to do. Friction is also an important concept in transaction-cost economics. Nevertheless, sludge has been discussed without explicit referral to transaction costs. Several questions arise from this observation. Is the analogy to friction used differently in both literatures? If so, what are the key differences? If not, sh…
Maybe tomorrow
Investments in energy-efficient technologies can save money over time and reduce environmental impacts. Accordingly, governments worldwide provide grants to encourage household investments in clean, energy-efficient technologies at scale. Although many households state intentions to avail of these grants and to invest in energy-efficient technologies, uptake of the grants is low. This perspective suggests that administrative burden is one major r…
Do economic preferences predict pro-environmental behaviour
Understanding the determinants of pro-environmental behaviour is key to address many environmental challenges. Economic theory and empirical evidence suggest that human behaviour is determined by peoples preferences over risk, time, and social consequences. As such, individual differences in these preferences should predict individual differences in pro-environmental behaviour. In a pre-registered study, we measure economic preferences in seven d…
Daily emotional well‐being during the Covid‐19 pandemic
The COVID‐19 outbreak has become one of the largest public health crises of our time. Governments have responded by implementing self‐isolation and physical distancing measures that have profoundly impacted daily life throughout the world. In this study, we aimed to investigate how people experience the activities, interactions, and settings of their lives during the pandemic. The sample (N = 604) was assessed in Ireland on the 25 March 2020, fol…
Nudge Forgood
Insights from the behavioural sciences are increasingly used by governments and other organizations worldwide to ‘nudge’ people to make better decisions. Furthermore, a large philosophical literature has emerged on the ethical considerations on nudging human behaviour that has presented key challenges for the area, but is regularly omitted from discussion of policy design and administration. We present and discuss FORGOOD, an ethics framework tha…
Informing behavioural policies with data from everyday life
Naturalistic monitoring tools provide detailed information about people's behaviours and experiences in everyday life. Most naturalistic monitoring research has focused on measuring subjective well-being. This paper discusses how naturalistic monitoring can inform behavioural public policy-making by providing detailed information about everyday decisions and the choice architecture in which these decisions are made. We describe how the Day Recons…
Present Bias and Everyday Self‐Control Failures
Everyday life is full of self‐control problems. The economist's favorite explanation for self‐control problems is present bias. This paper tests whether experimentally elicited present bias predicts self‐control problems in everyday life. We measure present bias by using a standard incentivized delay discounting task and everyday self‐control by using the day reconstruction method (DRM). Because this is the first study to measure everyday self‐co…
Impulsive consumption and reflexive thought
Towards an incentive salience model of intertemporal choice
Maybe tomorrow
Investments in energy-efficient technologies can save money over time and reduce environmental impacts. Accordingly, governments worldwide provide grants to encourage household investments in clean, energy-efficient technologies at scale. Although many households state intentions to avail of these grants and to invest in energy-efficient technologies, uptake of the grants is low. This perspective suggests that administrative burden is one major r…
Sludge and transaction costs
Behavioral scientists have begun to research ‘sludge,’ excessive frictions that make it harder for people to do what they want to do. Friction is also an important concept in transaction-cost economics. Nevertheless, sludge has been discussed without explicit referral to transaction costs. Several questions arise from this observation. Is the analogy to friction used differently in both literatures? If so, what are the key differences? If not, sh…
Impulsive consumption and reflexive thought
Nudge Forgood
Insights from the behavioural sciences are increasingly used by governments and other organizations worldwide to ‘nudge’ people to make better decisions. Furthermore, a large philosophical literature has emerged on the ethical considerations on nudging human behaviour that has presented key challenges for the area, but is regularly omitted from discussion of policy design and administration. We present and discuss FORGOOD, an ethics framework tha…
Present Bias and Everyday Self‐Control Failures
Everyday life is full of self‐control problems. The economist's favorite explanation for self‐control problems is present bias. This paper tests whether experimentally elicited present bias predicts self‐control problems in everyday life. We measure present bias by using a standard incentivized delay discounting task and everyday self‐control by using the day reconstruction method (DRM). Because this is the first study to measure everyday self‐co…
Towards an incentive salience model of intertemporal choice
Do economic preferences predict pro-environmental behaviour
Understanding the determinants of pro-environmental behaviour is key to address many environmental challenges. Economic theory and empirical evidence suggest that human behaviour is determined by peoples preferences over risk, time, and social consequences. As such, individual differences in these preferences should predict individual differences in pro-environmental behaviour. In a pre-registered study, we measure economic preferences in seven d…
Informing behavioural policies with data from everyday life
Naturalistic monitoring tools provide detailed information about people's behaviours and experiences in everyday life. Most naturalistic monitoring research has focused on measuring subjective well-being. This paper discusses how naturalistic monitoring can inform behavioural public policy-making by providing detailed information about everyday decisions and the choice architecture in which these decisions are made. We describe how the Day Recons…
Towards an incentive salience model of intertemporal choice
Impulsive consumption and reflexive thought
Present Bias and Everyday Self‐Control Failures
Everyday life is full of self‐control problems. The economist's favorite explanation for self‐control problems is present bias. This paper tests whether experimentally elicited present bias predicts self‐control problems in everyday life. We measure present bias by using a standard incentivized delay discounting task and everyday self‐control by using the day reconstruction method (DRM). Because this is the first study to measure everyday self‐co…
Informing behavioural policies with data from everyday life
Naturalistic monitoring tools provide detailed information about people's behaviours and experiences in everyday life. Most naturalistic monitoring research has focused on measuring subjective well-being. This paper discusses how naturalistic monitoring can inform behavioural public policy-making by providing detailed information about everyday decisions and the choice architecture in which these decisions are made. We describe how the Day Recons…
Daily emotional well‐being during the Covid‐19 pandemic
The COVID‐19 outbreak has become one of the largest public health crises of our time. Governments have responded by implementing self‐isolation and physical distancing measures that have profoundly impacted daily life throughout the world. In this study, we aimed to investigate how people experience the activities, interactions, and settings of their lives during the pandemic. The sample (N = 604) was assessed in Ireland on the 25 March 2020, fol…
Nudge Forgood
Insights from the behavioural sciences are increasingly used by governments and other organizations worldwide to ‘nudge’ people to make better decisions. Furthermore, a large philosophical literature has emerged on the ethical considerations on nudging human behaviour that has presented key challenges for the area, but is regularly omitted from discussion of policy design and administration. We present and discuss FORGOOD, an ethics framework tha…
Sludge and transaction costs
Behavioral scientists have begun to research ‘sludge,’ excessive frictions that make it harder for people to do what they want to do. Friction is also an important concept in transaction-cost economics. Nevertheless, sludge has been discussed without explicit referral to transaction costs. Several questions arise from this observation. Is the analogy to friction used differently in both literatures? If so, what are the key differences? If not, sh…
Maybe tomorrow
Investments in energy-efficient technologies can save money over time and reduce environmental impacts. Accordingly, governments worldwide provide grants to encourage household investments in clean, energy-efficient technologies at scale. Although many households state intentions to avail of these grants and to invest in energy-efficient technologies, uptake of the grants is low. This perspective suggests that administrative burden is one major r…
Do economic preferences predict pro-environmental behaviour
Understanding the determinants of pro-environmental behaviour is key to address many environmental challenges. Economic theory and empirical evidence suggest that human behaviour is determined by peoples preferences over risk, time, and social consequences. As such, individual differences in these preferences should predict individual differences in pro-environmental behaviour. In a pre-registered study, we measure economic preferences in seven d…
Responsibility utility and the difference between preference and desirance
Actions can provide “responsibility utility” when they signal the actors’ identities or values to others or to themselves. This paper considers a novel implication of this responsibility utility for welfare analysis: fully informed incentive-compatible choice data can give a biased measure of the utility delivered by exogenously determined outcomes. A person’s choice of a policy outcome may be informed by responsibility utility that would be stri…
Compliance Spending Aversion
Charities are increasingly required to spend more resources on administrative tasks to comply with regulations. Given previous findings on donors’ overhead aversion, namely that donors avoid giving to charities with a high ratio of overhead relative to program spending, we investigate whether donors also penalize charities that spend high shares of donations on administrative compliance tasks, despite these tasks being outside the charities’ cont…
Self-control failures, as judged by themselves
The existence of self-control failures is often used to legitimize public policy interventions. The argument is that reducing self-control failures can make people better off, as judged by themselves. However, there is only scarce evidence on the frequency and welfare costs of self-control failures. This paper presents a survey method that allows us to measure self-control failures in everyday life and to identify their welfare costs in terms of …
Recent developments in Behavioural Public Policy
Introduction to IBPPC 2022Behavioural Public Policy (BPP) is an established sub-discipline of public policy.BPP uses insights from behavioural science, broadly defined, to shape and inform public policy.Intersectionality in social sciences research is central to the research agenda of BPP.To this extent, BPP invites diversity in its approach to understand human behaviours and make policy recommendations, from scholars across established disciplin…
Vulnerability to and acceptability of different types of sludge
Sludge is one of the most important yet underappreciated problems in modern society. Examples of sludge include unnecessarily complex paperwork requirements, hard-to-navigate documents and websites, long waiting time, and unfriendly or confusing staff interactions. However, little is known about whether some people are more vulnerable to and less accepting of some types of sludge than others. Drawing on data from a nationally representative surve…
The effects of emotions on stated preferences for environmental change
A large literature in behavioral science suggests that people's emotional condition can have an impact on their choices. We consider how people's emotions affect their stated preferences and willingness to pay for changes in environmental quality, focusing on the effects of incidental emotions. We use videos to induce emotional states and test the replicability of the results reported in Hanley et al. (2017). Additionally, we employ Face Reader s…
Administrative burdens as barriers to afforestation
Many governments offer financial incentives to encourage landowners to plant trees. However, administrative burdens associated with these afforestation schemes can hinder grant uptake. This paper builds on existing research on administrative burdens and “sludge,” which addresses these administrative challenges, by conducting a sludge audit of Ireland's Afforestation Scheme. We create a journey map that outlines the typical steps involved in secur…
Psychology (11 works) · Economics (10 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Political science (7 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Behavioral Health and Interventions (5 works) · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics (5 works) · Microeconomics (4 works) · Psychological Well-being and Life Satisfaction (4 works)