We consider the problem of optimal consumption for an investor who is risk and uncertainty avers. We model these preferences of the investor with the help of a convex risk-measure...

Strong growth in disposable income has driven, and is still driving, consumption to unprecedented,but not sustainable levels. To explain the dynamic interplay of needs, need satisfaction, andinnovation underlying that growth a behavioral theory of consumption is suggested and discussedwith...

Behavioral (e.g. consumption) patterns of boundedly rational agents can lead these agents intolearning dynamics that appear to be “wasteful” in terms of well-being or welfare. Within settingsdisplaying preference endogeneity, it is however still unclear how to conceptualize well-being.This...

In order to explain the growth of obesity in industrialized and transitioneconomies, a behavioral approach to food intake and overconsumption of caloriesis presented. It is argued that changes in food consumption patterns are one of themain drivers behind the imbalance of calories consumed and...

This paper posits that significant changes in 19th century British recreational travel patternsresulted from a change in the manner in which tourists used entertaining stimuli in order to attain pleasure.Consumers no longer merely viewed arousing stimuli, but attempted to use them to produce...

Gaps in welfare attainment between boys and girls in China have attractedinternational attention. In this paper demand analysis is used to try and uncoverthe factors which may be driving the emergence of these gender gaps.Drawing on household expenditure data from a poor (Sichuan) and rich...

Thomas Schelling hat wegweisende Beiträge für die moderne Ökonomik geleistet.Ähnlich wie Gary Becker wendet er den ökonomischen Ansatz konsequent aufFragestellungen an, die zuvor gar nicht als ökonomische Probleme betrachtet wurden. In seiner Theorie des Self-Command modelliert Schelling...

The higher our aspirations, the higher the probability that we have to adjust them downwards when forming more realistic expectations later on. This paper shows that the costs induced by high aspirations are not trivial. We first develop a theoretical framework to identify the factors that...

This paper analyzes dynamic equilibrium risk sharing contracts between profit-maximizing intermediaries and a large pool of ex-ante identical agents that face idiosyncratic income uncertainty that makes them heterogeneous ex-post. In any given period, after having observed her income, the agent...

This paper incorporates aspects of humans’ evolved cognition into a formal model of culturalevolution and scrutinizes their interactions with population-level processes. It is shown how thebiased transmission of different kinds of behavior via cultural learning processes influencesagents’...