We examine how physical abilities affect individuals' preferences. In particular, by incorporating social comparison into prospect theory, we directly estimate the degree of loss aversion from social comparison, a concept we term `ALJ' (\textit{Avoiding Loss relative to the Joneses}). Our main...

This paper develops a formal economic theory to explain the Easterlin paradox-average happiness levels do not necessarily increase as countries grow wealthier. The theory analyzes the different roles of income and non-income factors in promoting people's happiness, and provides a foundation for...

In this research paper we investigated the determinants likely to influence the adoption of mobile banking services, with a special focus on under banked/unbanked low-income population of Pakistan. The adoption of mobile banking services has been a strategic goal, both for banks and telcos. For...

Social networking sites (SNSs) are quickly becoming the main venues for social interaction of Internet users. As the competition between these online services is growing ever stronger, the success of SNSs derives from persuasive core application designs that influence users in taking specific...

In this paper, I build on Blackmore (2000) to propose a formal theory of demographic transition (fertility decline) and associated growth of the stock of knowledge. The novelty of this theory is to entirely exclude private consumption from the objective function of the decision makers, and to...

The present paper shows that when a person has the experience of giving advice but that advice is not acted upon, there is a reduced openness to external information. We call this the “referral backfire effect”. We argue that this referral backfire effect is due to the identity threatening...

A share price in a stock market can be thought of as arising out of an aggregation procedure. The price of a stock aggregates many individual beliefs into a collective one, the collective will of the market, so to speak. How does this aggregation come about? And is this aggregation fair in the...

Social media is currently an evolving “wave” in online business marketing. Marketers are beginning to drive the use of social media as a component in their marketing strategy and campaigns to reach out to customers and fans. Within the subdisciplines of marketing that may use social media...

This paper examines the influence of government transparency on changing views regarding nuclear energy before and after Japan’s natural and nuclear disaster of 2011. Individual level data were used, covering 45 countries and containing 27,423 observations. It was observed in the majority of...

Using cross-country data, this paper examines the influence of government transparency on changing views regarding nuclear energy before and after Japan’s natural and nuclear disasters of 2011. It was observed that in the majority of countries the rate of favoring nuclear energy declined after...