035: Stephen Young on Being Car-Free and the Behavioural Economics of Owning A Car

Stephen Young is a Senior Lecturer at Brighton Business School and is subject leader for behavioural economics.

He is also Visiting Lecturer at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, where he teaches Behavioural Economics to health professionals, including commissioners, public health practitioners and GPs.

As an independent consultant and trainer, Stephen also provides client workshops and presentations on behavioural economics and behaviour change.

Stephen is widely published and his research interests include behaviour change, climate change, health, sustainability, and Information and Communications Technology.

Stephen does not own a car and is so passionate about being car free that he writes regularly on his blog livingthecarfreelife.blogspot.com. 

Economists:

In this interview, Stephen mentions and discusses:

Paul Ormerod, Richard Thaler, Cass Sunstein, John Cochrane, Paul Dolan, Malcolm Gladwell, Phil Goodwin, Daniel Kahneman, Adam Smith, Karl Marx, Barry Schwartz, Richard Layard, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Paul Krugman and Friedrich Hayek.

Economic Themes:

In this interview, Stephen mentions and discusses:

Bank run, financial crisis, risk, behavioural economics, nudge, rationality, incentives, tax, choice architecture, obesity, climate change, externalities, loss aversion and the endowment effect.

On Economic Theory:

Find Out:

• why Stephen decided to become an academic.

• about the Northern Rock bank run in the UK in 2007.

• why universities need to adapt or die when it comes to addressing relevant content.

• what Stephen is doing to reduce his carbon footprint in college and how he’s responding to the digital needs of his students.

• why health professionals are interested in behavioral economics.

• about the Irish government’s fight against obesity.

• how Stephen is encouraging a town in the UK to become pedestrian friendly.

• about framing car ownership – status and perception of rank.

• how by ditching your car you can burn calories.

• how the average person is working two days a week to pay for their car.

• about the emotional attachment that a car represents.

• what major cities across Europe are doing to make them more pedestrian and bike-friendly.

• about peak car ownership.

• some advice from Stephen on how to give up your car and become car free.

• about the pluralist approach to embracing economics.

You can live a better life without a car. You can be thinner. You  can be richer. You can be more sociable. You can be more flexible. You can get around just as easily – Stephen Young.

Reasons for Peak Car Ownership:

1. The youth do not have the income to finance the ownership of a car due to the high unemployment rates.
2. High cost of car insurance.
3. The opportunity costs of owning the latest technology.
4. You don’t need a car to participate in a lot of things today.

Behavior Economics in the Health Sector:

“We’re not just nudged by the other side, we’re being bombarded by the other side. There’s a lot of room to doubt the way public health policy is being transacted and implemented in a lot of economies” – Stephen Young.

Giving Up Your Car and Becoming Car Free:

1. Try living without your car for a while before you give up.
2. If you’re moving house, locate to an area where everything you need is close by.
3. Don’t give up your car just because it’ll make the world a better place. Only do it to improve your own life.
4. Take a ‘hike’ – go for a walk.
5. Walking is a great way of forming your thoughts and ideas as it clears your head and frees your mind.
6. Walking, rather than driving, improves your health and well-being. It connects you to where you live, to where you are.

“All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking” – Nietzcshe.

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Recommended Books:

• The Death of Economics by Paul Ormerod
• Why Most Things Fail: Evolution, Extinction and Economics by Paul Ormerod
• Nudge by Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
• The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
• Happiness by Design by Paul Dolan
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• The Road to Serfdom by Friedrich Hayek
• Capital: Volume 1 by Karl Marx
• Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioural Economics by Richard Thaler
• Poor Economics by Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
• Scarcity by Sendil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn

Where to Find Stephen Young:

• Website: stephenyoung.org.uk
• Website: livingthecarfreelife.blogspot.com
• LinkedIn: Stephen Young
• Twitter: @stephenyounguk
• BehaviourWorkshops Twitter: @BehaviourW
• Behaviour Workshops Blog: http://www.behaviourworkshops.blogspot.co.uk/

Stephen Young’s Publications:

• Young, S (2013). The Behavioural Economics of Owning A Car. eg magazine. Volume 18, Issue 5, March-April  2013. ISSN 2042-1990.
• Other Publications.

Forthcoming

• Young, S. and Caisey, V. Behavioral Economics and Social Marketing: Points of Contact?  Chapter in Volume II of Stewart, D. (Ed) Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing. NY: Praeger. 2015.

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