Motivated by the extensive evidence about the relevance of status quo bias both in experiments and in real markets, we study this phenomenon from a decision-theoretic prospective, focusing on the case of preferences under uncertainty. We develop an axiomatic framework that takes as a primitive...

The goal of this paper is to model an agent who dislikes large choice sets because of the "cost of thinking" involved in choosing from them. We take as a primitive a preference relation over lotteries of menus and impose novel axioms that allow us to separately identify the genuine preference...

Experimental evidence suggests that individuals are more risk averse when they perceive risk gradually. We address these findings by studying a decision maker (DM) who has recursive preferences over compound lotteries and who cares about the way uncertainty is resolved over time. DM has...

We study a two-stage choice problem, where alternatives are allocations between the decision maker (DM) and a passive recipient. The recipient observes choice behavior in stage two, while stage one choice is unobserved. Choosing selfishly in stage two, in the face of a fairer available...

The incidence of poverty,as measured by the relative index customarily used in Israel,rose in 2005 to a level of 24.7 percent.Some reduction in poverty was evident in 2006,however,and in the year to June 2006 it reached 24.4 percent. Alternative poverty indices which consider a household poor if...

This paper deals with the optimal transfer of binary information (BIT) on group membership between different statistical surveys of an identical population, a need arising frequently in socio-economic surveys. The limited number of questions asked in any one survey may necessitate information...

The Israeli Economy has served as a laboratory for the study of inflation and government policy reponse. In periods crucial for Israel's experience of inflation, finance ministers were replaced frequently, often changing their predecessors' policies, much to the detriment of inflation. Inflation...

Poverty is easily recognized when encountered "face to face," but when measured for a society as a whole it becomes evasive and ambiguous, raising fundamental and practical issues. In this paper we examine several poverty measures from the aspect of how well they can serve as policy targets and...

The Haredi (Jewish ultra-orthodox) population in Israel is an idiosyncratic community. Its members are committed to the observance of the Bible and its commandments, as interpreted by its sectarian religious leaders. Haredi poverty is exceptionally high, with a share of 20% of the Israeli poor...

This paper deals with the impact of migrant workers on the Israeli wage structure, on the chances of being unemployed or out of the labor force and on inequality in gross earnings from work. One of the manifestations of globalization is the movement of migrant workers from low-income to richer...