Empirically, the commons are not as tragic as standard theory predicts. The predominant explanation for this finding is conditional cooperation. Yet many real life situations involve insiders, who are directly affected by a dilemma, and outsiders, who may be harmed if the insiders overcome the...

Reciprocal behavioral has been found to play a significant role in many economic domains, including labor supply, tax compliance, voting behavior, and fund-raising. What explains individuals’ tendency to respond to the kindness of others? Existing theories posit internal preferences for the...

We observe that identification of the discount rate from experimental data requires an assumption about the consumption period, the length of time over which a payment will be turned into utility-providing consumption. We show that the optimal consumption period is substantially longer than...

This article introduces the emergency purchasing situation (EPS) as a distinct buying context. EPSs stem from an unexpected event (unanticipated need or timing of a need), as well as high product importance, which are associated with a short time frame for consumer decision-making. Our...

Tournaments require a large gap in prizes in order to induce incentives. The resulting unequal distribution suggests that monetary payoffs are not the only motive that determines agents’ decisions. In our experiment we test theoretical predictions about the role of envy and loss aversion in...

Neuroeconomics shares the main goals of microeconomics: to understand what causes choices, and the welfare properties of choice. The novel goal is linking mathematical constructs and observable behavior to mechanistic details of neural circuitry. Several complementary methods are used. An...

Fiscal psychology is not a modern discipline. The history of economic thought leaves no doubt as to the fact that many of the notions of fiscal psychology as we know it today were present in the past. There are even cases, though these are not frequent, of economists and social scientists of the...

The dictator game is a tool for analyzing generosity in a simple experimental environment. The susceptibility of the results to relatively small changes in the experimental design has cast doubt on the interpretation of the game within the framework of the traditional economic theory of...

Mental accounting has been identified as an important source of non-fungibility in household and individual decision making. Ostensibly uniform assets, including cash, are perceived differently according to their originating source. In this study we examine assumptions of fungibility by using...