The paper introduces the concept of adjustment utility, that is, reference-dependent utility from expectations. It offers an explanation for observed preferences that cannot be explained with existing models, and yields new predictions for individual decision making. The model gives a simple...

Both Section 409 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (2002) and Regulation Fair Disclosure (2000) were created to significantly improve the timeliness of disclosures and help specify which events should be deemed material. We examine if nonprofessional investors can correctly discriminate-and subsequently...

Behavioral economics has demonstrated systematic decision-making biases in both lab and field data. But are these biases learned or innate? We investigate this question using experiments on a novel set of subjects - capuchin monkeys. By introducing a fiat currency and trade to a capuchin colony,...

This paper analyzes successful lease-up in the Moving to Opportunity for Fair Housing (MTO) random-assignment demonstration, which is designed to measure the impacts of helping very low-income families with children to move from public and assisted housing in high-poverty inner-city...

The paper extends the Jobber-Saunders (1993) model of predicting mail survey response rates from commercial populations to accounting studies. From 110 accounting-based studies which employed the mail questionnaire methodology in the last decade, a multiple regression model consisting of nine...

To address the neurocognitive mechanisms that underlie choices made after receiving information from an anonymous individual, reaction times (Experiment 1) and event-related brain potentials (Experiment 2) were recorded as participants played 3 variants of the Coin Toss game. In this game,...

Previous experimental investigations have shown that expectations are not perfectly rational due to several forms of bias. Traditional adaptive models, however, in many cases do not perfectly describe the formation of expectations either. This paper makes two contributions to the experimental...

Market regulators, commissions and accountancy bodies have recommended the establishment of audit committees as an important step in improving corporate governance. In 2002 the Kenya Capital Markets Authority required all listed companies to establish audit committees. This study examined the...

After the Global Financial Crisis a controversial rush to fiscal austerity followed in many countries. Yet research on the effects of austerity on macroeconomic aggregates was and still is unsettled, mired by the difficulty of identifying multipliers from observational data. This paper...

This paper uses a twin construct to test how the thickness of the veil of ignorance (VOI) affects the perception of fairness and redistributional choices. A fortune reversal is generally perceived to be fair behind a thick VOI, but deemed unfair behind a transparent VOI, particularly if one is...