The Contribution of Behavioural Insights to Political Economy

This paper is an introduction to the special issue of the Review of Behavioural Economics in honour of Shaun Hargreaves Heap. The essays contained in the special issue explore, via an engagement with Hargreaves Heap’s work, how behavioural insights can contribute to the discipline of political economy. This paper introduces the essays by summarising how they suggest that arguments and findings derived from behavioural economics can be used to address important issues in contemporary political economy.