Prospects for integrating behavioral and cultural economics

The article argues for the promise of integrating behavioral and cultural economics based on the common premise of bounded rationality. It systematizes empirical evidence on the relationships between cultural characteristics and cognitive biases. It is shown that most of the links between cultural characteristics and cognitive biases are currently established for "non-standard preferences" (reference-dependent preferences, social preferences, and present-biased intertemporal preferences). Among cultural indicators, the most links have been identified for the individualism-collectivism dimension. From a practical standpoint, the article's findings highlight the importance of considering cultural context when designing educational programs, as well as the promise of simultaneously accounting for both cultural context and the structure of cognitive biases in institutional design (including nudge). For Russia, this implies, among other things, the importance of considering regional differences on the individualism-collectivism scale and developing culturally-specific tools for mitigating biases associated with high power distance and uncertainty avoidance.