How should findings about discipline and self-control shape policies to prevent over-indebtedness? How should the ways people learn and retain knowledge shape financial education programs? What are the best ways to disclose product costs and terms in a way that is relevant to consumers’ daily lives? These were some of the key questions explored in an ideas42 workshop held at the World Bank in Washington, DC on June 14 and 15, 2012. The workshop brought together world-class behavioral researchers and leading consumer protection policy-makers from across the globe to candidly explore key consumer protection topics and related insights from behavioral economics.

Taking advantage of participants’ broad knowledge and first-hand experience, each session featured a consumer protection topic area, considered in terms of behavioral insights particularly relevant to this policy issue. Participants included policy-makers tackling consumer protection in Brazil, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, and Senegal, as well as leading behavioral researchers such as Anna Maria Lusardi, Antoinette Schoar, Michael Collins, Eldar Shafir and Elaine Kempson.