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We study price formation in the standard model of consumer search for differentiated products but allow for search cost heterogeneity. In doing so, we dispense with the usual assumption that all consumers search at least once in equilibrium. This allows us to analyze the manner in which prices...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013032943
Consumer boycotts often provide a disciplinary mechanism against firms deviating from established social norms. Such actions tend to be organized by people through reference groups with a social mission. The intensity of the group identity is, however, private information. Therefore, the...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012993694
We propose a model of instrumental belief choice under loss aversion. When new information arrives, an agent is prompted to abandon her prior. However, potential posteriors may induce her to take actions that generate a lower utility in some states than actions induced by her prior. These losses...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012978311
Using a natural voting experiment in Switzerland that encompasses a 160-year period (1848–2009), we investigate whether a higher level of complexity leads to increased reliance on expert knowledge. We find that when more referenda are held on the same day, constituents are more likely to refer...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013315872
We analyse the determination of taxes on harmful goods when consumers have self-control problems. We show that under reasonable assumptions, the socially optimal corrective tax exceeds the average distortion caused by self-control problems. Further, we analyse how individuals with self-control...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013159702
Recent studies investigate policies motivating consumers to make an active choice as a way to protect unsophisticated consumers. We analyse the optimal timing of such choice-enhancing policies when a firm can strategically react to them. In our model, a firm provides an automatic enrollment or...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012985793
How do voters allocate costly attention to alternative political issues? And how does selective ignorance of voters interact with policy design by politicians? We address these questions by developing a model of electoral competition with rationally inattentive voters. Rational inattention...
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012993102
lives for three periods. Our results show how a paternalistic government may correct for the effects of anticipation-bias …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013104834
We analyze how agents' present bias affects optimal contracting in an infinite-horizon employment setting. The …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10012978071
bias is persistent and robust to several model extensions. Implications for the optimal design of intellectual property …
Persistent link: https://www.econbiz.de/10013125704