Dr Van Ha proposes an innovative approach to shape Vietnam’s sustainable future through behavioural economics.
Dr Van Ha is the Senior Program Manager of Economics at The Business School, RMIT University Vietnam. With a strong background in economics, including a PhD from New Zealand, she is exploring the exciting field of behavioural economics and its potential to drive sustainable practices.
"When I think about Vietnam, I think we have many opportunities to make a difference here, to be more sustainable in our growth and more conscious in our business decisions," Dr Van explained.
Behavioural economics is a relatively new discipline that draws on psychology and sociology to understand how people make decisions. Unlike standard economic theory, which assumes rational decision-making, behavioural economics recognises the influence of emotions and environmental factors on human behaviour.
Dr Van sees great potential in applying behavioural economics to promote sustainability initiatives. This can range from simple workplace interventions, such as strategically placed reminders to turn off lights, to more comprehensive policies at the governmental level.
At RMIT Vietnam, Dr Van is supporting the university-wide focus on sustainability. "We are making our campuses greener and embedding the Sustainable Development Goals in our research and teaching activities more and more," she shared.
She believes that small changes, both in personal life and at an institutional level, can together create significant impacts. "By changing our behaviours bit by bit, as a society, we can influence bigger changes that benefit future generations," she said.
Hear Dr Van's perspectives on behavioural economics and sustainability in our video:
Dr Van Ha proposes an innovative approach to shape Vietnam’s sustainable future through behavioural economics.
When I think about Vietnam, I think we have many opportunities to make a difference here, to be more sustainable in our growth and more conscious in our business decisions.
Hi, I'm Dr Van Ha. I'm a lecturer and currently the Senior Program Manager of Economics at The Business School, RMIT Vietnam.
My academic background has always been economics. I studied in Vietnam for my bachelor's and master's degrees. I moved to New Zealand for four years for my PhD in economics.
My research has been largely focused on looking at foreign direct investment inflows and how they impact domestic firms, like their productivity, wages, and export activities.
But after years of researching those topics, I've started looking around to see what else would be more interesting for me. And I find myself very engaged in anything related to a behavioural economics and sustainable development.
Behavioural economics is a relatively new discipline that draws on other social sciences like psychology and sociology.
It comes from the fact that people don't always make rational decisions like standard economic theory would assume. Rather, they are impacted by emotions and feelings, and because of that, there are behavioural interventions that can influence people's decisions.
Basically, by studying behavioural economics, we can help individual firms make better decisions as well as we can help governments design more impactful policies.
The power of behavioural economics is that we can change people's behaviours by changing the environment, and that can be useful in promoting sustainable initiatives.
So say, for example, if you’re a company that wants to be more sustainable in your daily operations, you can design your workplace so that people can turn off the lights and air conditioner more easily.
You can put a note somewhere saying that if you turn off this light, you can save this much CO2 emissions, or you can put bins in the office to collect old batteries.
So, sustainable development can start with something small like that and if you have more resources, you can do more.
In my personal life, I've been cutting down on plastic and growing more plants. Sustainability is also a university-wide focus at RMIT. We are making our campuses greener and we are embedding the Sustainable Development Goals in our research and teaching activities more and more.
I think by changing our behaviour bit by bit, as a society, we can influence bigger changes that benefit future generations.