Behavioral economics and its application in improving anti-corruption strategies

Abstract

Corruption remains one of the key threats to the effectiveness of public administration and the country's sustainable economic development, necessitating the search for new, scientifically based approaches to its prevention. Traditional anti-corruption strategies, focused mainly on sanctions and control, demonstrate limited effectiveness in the long term. The purpose of the study is to theoretically substantiate the use of behavioral tools to enhance corruption-prevention strategies and to develop a conceptual model for integrating behavioral interventions into the anti-corruption policy system.

The study used methods of theoretical generalization to systematize the behavioral determinants of corruption decisions, structural and functional analysis to determine the mechanisms of their influence on managerial decision-making, and comparative analysis to compare traditional and behavioral anti-corruption tools.

It is substantiated that corrupt behavior is formed under the influence of cognitive distortions, social norms, bounded rationality, and mechanisms of moral rationalization. It is established that the key factors in the adoption of corrupt decisions are the effects of social norms, bounded rationality, loss aversion, moral detachment, and the status quo effect, which form the psychological prerequisites for the legitimization of improper behavior in public and corporate governance. It is shown that the main differences between the reactive sanction model and the preventive behavioral model of anti-corruption influence are the logic of the influence mechanism, the time horizon of implementation, and the nature of behavioral norm formation. A conceptual model for improving the anti-corruption strategy has been developed, integrating cognitive risk analysis with the institutional design of preventive interventions and reflecting the sequence of transition from behavioral distortions to the institutional consolidation of new standards of integrity.

The prerequisite for a long-term reduction in corruption risks, increased institutional stability, and greater efficiency in public administration is the integration of behavioral mechanisms into the country’s strategic management system. The results obtained can be used to develop institutional reform programs, corruption-prevention strategies, and systems to assess the risks of misconduct in government bodies and the corporate sector.