The authors present a three-stage model of market dynamics. In the first stage, routine behavior tends to keep information of common interest trapped in private hands. In the second stage, private information reaches a threshold that triggers some agents to alter their behavior; these actions...

Monetary policymakers are uncertain about the state of the economy and learn from the economy's reaction to policy. Private agents, however, anticipate any systematic attempt to incorporate this information into future policy. The authors analyze this feedback in the context of a monetary...

Many everyday decisions are made without full examination of all available options, and, as a result, the best available option may be missed. We develop a search-theoretic choice experiment to study the impact of incomplete consideration on the quality of choices. We find that many decisions...

In reviewing the Challenger tragedy, Richard Feynman identified a flawed O-Ring as the proximate cause and NASA's flawed safety culture as a deeper cause. There has been no similar investigation of the mortgage mess, which has been baptized rather than understood. In part, this is due to...

We develop a survey instrument to measure self-control problems in a sample of highly educated adults. This measure relates in the manner that theory predicts to liquid wealth accumulation and personality measures. Yet while self-control problems are typically seen as resulting in...