We combine Minsky's financial fragility analysis, behavioural analysis of decision rules and the evolutionary economics of rule trajectories to provide an empirically grounded and computationally tractable theory of the complex evolutionary dynamics of speculative financial upswings. The...

Impulsive and myopic choices are often explained as due to hyperbolic discounting, meaning that people are impatient for outcomes available immediately, and become increasingly more patient the more the outcome is delayed. Recent research, however, has suggested that much experimental evidence...

According to most models of intertemporal choice, an agent's discount rate is a function of how far the outcomes are removed from the present, and nothing else. This view has been challenged by recent studies, which show that discount rates tend to be higher the closer the outcomes are to one...

According to most models of intertemporal choice, an agent's discount rate is a function of how far the outcomes are removed from the present, and nothing else. This view has been challenged by recent studies, which show that discount rates tend to be higher the closer the outcomes are to one...

Consumers are often confronted with choices between options that vary in their short and long term benefit, or what we call immediate and delayed utility. This paper describes the marketing implications of what economists and psychologists have learned about how consumers make these choices. The...

In intertemporal choice experiments people usually choose between smaller-sooner and larger-later amounts of money. That is, they make tradeoffs in terms of nominal amounts. Yet the factor governing intertemporal tradeoffs in the marketplace is usually the interest rate. In this study, we tested...

Extended warranties are popular but expensive. This paper examines how consumers value these warranties, and asks whether economic considerations alone can account for their popularity. Results from two field surveys show that consumers greatly overestimate both the likelihood and the cost of...

The approach to water management worldwide is currently in transition, with a shift evident from purely centralised infrastructure to greater consideration of decentralised technologies, such as rainwater harvesting (RWH). Initiated by recognition of drivers including increasing water demand and...

Effective integrated water management is a key component of the World Water Vision and the way in which aspirations for water equity may be realized. Part of the vision includes the promotion of sustainability of water systems and full accountability for their interaction with other urban...