The Consumer-Citizen Lab (CCL) is Nudge Lebanon’s jewel offering, an initiative made possible through generous funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The CCL seeks to extend the discipline of behavioral economics to universities in Lebanon and, eventually, in the Arab region, build the capacity of students and future practitioners, and connect various stakeholders, including government agencies, NGOs, experts, and academics.
People in a civic setting (citizens) can be considered as consumers because they consume products and services from three sources: a) private-sector entities (retailers, bankers, and other service providers), b) government agencies (utilities, laws and regulations), services provided by the government and its agencies, and c) other consumer-citizens with whom they interact.
Therefore, consumer-citizens’ rights should be protected from potential violation by each of these three sources.
The CCL expands the concept of consumer protection to include these citizenship angles. It offers protection from a pure narrow consumer policy issues, such as protection against abuse of market powers and failures, to a wider dimension ranging from sub-optimal government services to wider citizenship issues.
The CCL enables sharing, discussing, and recommending innovative solutions for many national challenges.