The literature on self-control problems has typically concentrated on immediate temptations. This paper studies a Gul and Pesendorfer (2001, 2004) style model in which decision-makers are affected by temptations that lie in the future. While temptation is commonly understood to give rise to a...

Choice may be determined both by a consideration of one's welfare (normative preference) and by desires (temptation preference). To provide foundations for such a theory, Gul and Pesendorfer (2001, 2004) adopt a preference over choice problems as a primitive and hypothesize that temptation...

In the light of first-hand data from a Beninese urban household survey in Cotonou, we investigate several motives aiming to explain participation in Rotating Savings and Credit ASsociations. We provide empirical findings which indicate that individuals use their participation in a rosca as a...

Economic theories of rational addiction aim to describe consumer behavior in the presence of habit-forming goods. We provide a biological foundation for this body of work by formally specifying conditions under which it is optimal to form a habit. We demonstrate the empirical validity of our...

This paper analyzes an agent¡¯s option exercise decision under uncertainty. The agent decides whether and when to do an irreversible activity. He is tempted by immediate gratification and suffers from self-control problems. This paper adopts the Gul and Pensendorfer self- control utility...

The variety-seeking behavior and the brand choice among the consumers have been discussed extensively in the previous research contributions from the stochastic point of view. This study argues that although consumers are seeking novelty and unexpectedness in a brand that they have not bought...

We measure the United States capital stock of money implied by the Divisia monetary aggregate service flow, in a manner consistent with the present-value model of economic capital stock. We permit non-martingale expectations and time varying discount rates. Based on Barnett’s (1991) definition...

Two 'event' scales for financial markets, called 'scale of market shocks' (SMS), are introduced, which measure the importance of the market movements. These indices are based on the price volatility and are computed by integrating mapped asset volatilities over time horizons that range from 1...

This paper computes an aggregate real after-tax rate of return on residential real estate in the United States. We account for net rental income, capital gain, and subsidies due to tax provisions for homeowners in constructing a total return measure. We also compute separate returns to owners...