The behavioural revolution has profoundly affected how we conceptualize behaviour. The rational agent of standard microeconomic theory has been found wanting and, in its place, new formulations have been presented which take seriously human traits like myopia and loss aversion. Here it is argued that the behavioural revolution offers a way of understanding common problems in economic geography, such as co-location, clusters of innovation, the diffusion of innovation, and home bias. It is noted that earlier versions of behaviouralism stressed bounded rationality but underestimated the far-reaching consequences of the behavioural revolution. To explain the significance of these developments for understanding the intersection between cognition and context, we look closely at behaviour in time and space. The implications of behaviouralism for institutions are briefly considered, emphasizing the role that collective action in or through institutions can play in ameliorating the adverse effects of behavioural biases and anomalies.
Social Conformity and Bounded Rationality in Arbitrary Games with Incomplete Information: Some First Results
