Behavioral insights for policy design in Central Asia

In mainstream economics, there is an assumption that individuals are rational actors whose decision-making is based on incentives, regulations and available information. When such an assumption is translated into designing public policies, authorities designing policies consider individual citizens as rational decision-makers. However, human choices are commonly influenced by various biases, emotional responses and social influences. The biases in human decision-making processes make traditional policy tools like tax incentives, mandatory requirements, and public awareness campaigns ineffective. This paper reviews and argues that behavioral insights can strengthen traditional policy instruments by better aligning interventions and human behavior. The countries in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, can achieve better policy outcomes through evidence-based, behaviorally informed design, complementing assumption-driven approaches. The paper explains the fundamentals of behavioral insights through worldwide examples and provides specific recommendations for implementing BI in policy development with implications for Uzbekistan.